A woman who kept her daughter in a drawer under her bed for almost three years in the north of England has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
A mother who placed her daughter in a drawer for the first three years of her life has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for “extreme neglect” at Chester Crown Court.
According to investigators, the girl had “never known daylight or fresh air”, report our colleagues from the BBC. The condemned mother’s own family was unaware of the very existence of this young child. It was the mother’s partner, challenged by tears, who discovered the victim by chance.
“An overwhelming horror”
The judge in charge of this case Steven Everett ruled that the mother had “deprived this little girl of all love, all affection, all attention, all social interaction, an appropriate diet and necessary medical care .”
“This little girl is slowly coming back to life, after living in an almost dead room. (…) Your terrible secret has been discovered. I don’t remember such a serious case in 46 years,” the judge continued, who notes that the victim did not even know his first name.
The girl, now in foster care, suffers from severe malnutrition, a cleft palate, rashes, deformities and numerous other health problems, according to the court.
During the hearing, a social worker, who intervened at the home following the discovery of the victim, said she was “shocked that the mother showed no emotion.”
“I looked at her mother and asked, ‘Is this where you keep her?’ The mother responded matter-of-factly: ‘Yes, in the drawer,'” she told the court.
“It was an overwhelming horror to know that I was probably the only other face (the daughter) had seen other than her mother,” the welfare officer testified.
Faced with investigators, the victim’s mother explained that she was “really afraid” during her delivery, believing that the child “was not part of the family”.
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