“By sheer chance your terrible secret was discovered,” the judge told the mother in court, as prosecutors claim the three-year-old child looked like a seven-month-old baby when she was found.
A British mother has been sentenced to serious time behind bars, after allegedly keeping her infant child confined to a drawer under her bed for the first three years of the baby girl’s life.
The woman, whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of the victim, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison on Tuesday in Cheshire.
The sentencing came after she pled guilty to four counts of causing assault/ill treatment/neglect/abandonment of child to cause unnecessary suffering/injury, according to police.
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The Child’s Birth, Years Spent In Drawer
Per the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the child was born in 2020 with a cleft palate, with the mother saying she gave birth in a bath at home.
“Then, for a reason that the Crown Prosecution Service was never able to establish, she decided to place the baby in a drawer in her divan bed and leave her there,” CPS said in a statement. “She came back now and again to feed her milky Weetabix through a medicine syringe and change the child’s nappies.”
The mother allegedly went about her life, caring for her other children and going to work, while leaving the baby alone in the drawer “for hours on end.” In court, according to the BBC, it was revealed the mother kept the child’s existence a secret from her other children, as well as her partner, who sometimes stayed at her home.
CPS said that, over time, “the baby’s growth and physical and mental development was severely impacted by the lack of care, attention and food and the restrictions of a life spent in a drawer.”
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The Child’s Discovery
It was the mother’s partner who allegedly discovered the child, in February 2023, after CPS said he heard what he thought was a baby.
“He had gone back into the house to use the toilet after the defendant had left her keys in the door. She usually didn’t allow him upstairs alone,” noted prosecutors, who say he found the child with “matted hair and clearly malnourished.”
After he “ran from the house in shock,” he told his mother what he saw; she then called the woman’s own mother, with police and social services alerted after.
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Social Worker Statement
A social worker who responded to the scene spoke in court, with prosecutors detailing their alleged statement regarding the “overwhelming horror” they found at the home.
Since March 2023 I have thought about [the baby] and this case often. My initial feelings and thoughts when we entered the mother’s bedroom was of disbelief,” they shared. “Her mother walked round the side of the bed and I followed. I was taken aback by what I saw and was extremely shocked to see a baby looking up at me sat in a divan drawer.”
“[The baby] stared at me and was rocking back and forth. I looked at her mum and asked, ‘Is this where you keep her?’ The mother replied matter of factly, ‘Yes in the drawer,'” they continued. “I was shocked the mother did not show any emotion and appeared blasé about the situation. I asked had anyone else ever seen (the child)? Mum stated no.”
“It became an overwhelming horror that I was probably the only other face [the child] had seen apart from her mother’s,” they concluded. “Having been a social worker since 2006, I have never experienced such an extreme case of blatant child neglect and cruelty. The mother showed no remorse or emotion which I found extremely difficult to comprehend.”
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The Investigation
Per prosecutors, the woman told police she didn’t want to tell the child’s father she was pregnant, claiming she was in an abusive relationship.
Medical experts, per CPS, said the child “could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive ‘self-soothing’ movements, such as rocking.” They also claimed she was “significantly malnourished, unkempt, dehydrated, she had an untreated cleft lip and palate, swollen abdomen, significant nappy rash, and poor muscle bulk” — and “also had floppy limbs, swollen feet in an abnormal position and redness to the outer limbs.”
They said the child’s development was “equivalent to that of a 10-month-old,” “as a result of the extreme nature of the neglect.”
CPS noted, however, that the child began “vocalizing” to seek “adult comfort” and “crying to make her needs known” after being admitted to the hospital — and has since “continued to make progress.” Despite two operations to fix her cleft palate, she still needs further surgery.
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The Sentencing Hearing
During her sentencing hearing this week, Judge Steven Everett said the woman’s actions “totally defied belief.”
“You attempted to control this situation as carefully as you could but by sheer chance your terrible secret was discovered,” he reportedly said. “I don’t remember a case as bad as this in my 46 years.”
After sentencing, Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington said, “After reading the evidence, I had to take myself away and try and process what I had read.”
“This child has never had a birthday present, a Christmas present or anything to recognize these days. She’s had no interaction with any of her siblings,” she continued. “She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found.”
“I am a mother myself,” she concluded. “and simply couldn’t comprehend what this defendant had done or why.”
If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
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