A terrible case of child abuse has come to light in England. A mother hid her daughter in a drawer for three years, concealing her from her partner and other children. The mother was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, according to Daily Mail.
The shocking details were disclosed at Chester Crown Court, where it was discovered that the young girl had never been exposed to daylight and did not know what “fresh air” was. She was discovered just weeks before her third birthday by the mother’s partner when he, using the toilet, stumbled upon the child locked in a drawer under the woman’s divan bed.
The nearly three-year-old girl looked severely malnourished, similar to a seven-month-old baby, and was fed milky Weetabix through a syringe. The mother would often leave her alone when taking her other children to school or for work, even abandoning the child during a Christmas visit to her relatives, leaving her to “fend for herself” without food for long stretches.
The girl was found in a state of extreme distress, with matted hair, rashes, cleft palate, and other health issues. She did not receive any form of medical care from her mother.
The woman pleaded guilty to child cruelty. Chester Crown Court’s Judge Steven Everett condemned the actions of the mother saying: “You starved that little girl of any love, any proper affection, any proper attention, any interaction with others, a proper diet, much-needed medical attention.” The child, he said, had had her physical, psychological, and social well-being “catastrophically” affected.
Prosecutor Sion ap Mihangel described the abuse, saying, “She was kept in a drawer in the bedroom, not taken outside, not socialized, no interaction with anybody else.” The child, though enduring unimaginable hardship, is now slowly recovering.
