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Tragedy of couple jailed for two years, after allowing their nine children to live in squalor (18 June 2014)

Date: 18/06/2014
Duncan Lewis, Family Solicitors, Tragedy of couple jailed for two years, after allowing their nine children to live in squalor

An unemployed couple who left their five children living in lice-infested squalor have been jailed by a court in Gloucester.

Five of the couple’s nine children aged from three to 14 were found to be suffering from malnutrition and were also infested with fleas, the Daily Mail reports.

The couple’s youngest sons aged four were not potty trained – and a teenage daughter was found to be infested with head lice and suffering from a urinary infection that was so severe she suffered permanent injury as a result.

The children were forced to share rooms which reeked of urine and animal faeces, the court heard. The parents also failed to keep their children’s medical appointments and appointments with social workers and other agencies, the court heard.

The conditions the children were living in only came to the attention of social services after a three-year-old girl was admitted to hospital suffering from a severe nappy rash. The couple’s two youngest boys were then also admitted to hospital.

Social services in Gloucester immediately launched urgent care proceedings to remove all the children from their home, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Teachers at the school the children attended said that the children were so dirty that the smell was almost unbearable – one teacher said in a statement that she had to walk away from one of the couple’s daughters at the school because of the condition she was in.

The headteacher at the school the girls attended had washed their clothes because they smelt so much, the court heard.

Police statements told of how shocked officers were when they inspected the house two months after social services had taken the children into care. Food in the kitchen was found to be stale and the kitchen was described as “filthy”.

The rest of the house was also described as “grimy and dirty”.

Jailing the parents – who cannot be named for legal reasons – Judge Jamie Tabor said that they had not been intentionally cruel to their children but were “inadequate, stupid, stubborn and incompetent” as parents.

At the time the couple met and married, the 41-year-old mother already had six children by a previous partner and she went on to have three more children with the youngest children’s father, who is aged 36.

The couple had claimed State benefits for their family and were originally charged with neglect of all nine children, but the charges involving the five eldest children were dropped. The couple then pleaded guilty to child neglect involving the youngest children between July 2007 and December 2012.

Judge Tabor jailed the couple for two years each and told the court that it was likely the children would be scarred for life as a result of the “abject failure and negligence of their parents”.

It is reported that all the couple’s children are now being adopted – the parents were told in court that it was unlikely they would see their children again. It is reported all the children are now “safe and doing well”.

The couple had delayed their sentencing in court after they both took drug overdoses and were admitted to hospital, before being discharged the next day. Both received care from a crisis mental health team following their discharge from hospital. A legal representative for the children’s mother said that her suicide attempt had been genuine, as she felt she had nothing left to live for.

It was revealed in court that both parents have physical disabilities and the judge questioned whether they should have gone on to have more children, as their disabilities “impeded their ability to care for their children”.

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