Baby hidden in drawer under bed for three years in 'shocking neglect'

A woman who kept her baby daughter hidden in a drawer for the first three years of her life has been jailed. On Tuesday, November 26, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the identity of the child, appeared at Chester Crown Court, where she was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison.

Earlier, she had pleaded guilty to four counts of causing assault, ill treatment, neglect and abandonment of child to cause unnecessary suffering/injury. The charges relate to offences which occurred between March 2020 and February 2023.

In February 2023, police and social services were informed that a child had been discovered hidden in a bedroom at an address in Cheshire, the court heard. A joint visit to the address was undertaken and the child was taken immediately into care. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

It was found that the child had been born in March 2020. However, it had been kept secret from friends and family and had never been registered. Instead, the child had spent much of its life hidden in a bedroom at the address, even sleeping in a drawer under the bed, LiverpoolEcho reports.

The court was told that the woman came back now and again to feed her milky Weetabix through a medicine syringe and change the child's nappies. As time went on, the mum went to work and took her other children to school.

She left the child in the drawer, alone for hours on end, including leaving her overnight on Christmas Eve while she went with her other children to stay with her parents. The baby girl was severely malnourished and was fed with milky Weetabix through a syringe, the court was told.

She also had a cleft palate and several other medical issues, which her mum had not sought treatment for. A social worker was called to the house after the discovery, and described her "overwhelming horror" at what she saw on entering the bedroom.

The child was found with matted hair, deformities and rashes, the court heard. The social worker said: "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.

"From entering this room, the bed was high, possibly a double mattress, so I could not see (the baby). 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.' 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 X had seen apart from her mother's. 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."

The mum later told police officers that she'd been in an abusive relationship with the father of the baby and didn't want to tell him she was pregnant, LiverpoolEcho reports. When the baby was examined by medical experts, she could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive "self-soothing" movements, such as rocking. She also had floppy limbs, swollen feet in an abnormal position and redness to the outer limbs. Within two weeks of her admission to hospital, the child was vocalising, seeking adult comfort and crying to make her needs known.

In court, Judge Steven Everett said what the woman did "totally defies belief." He said: "You starved that little girl of any love, attention or interaction with others, a proper diet, much needed medical attention for a cleft palate....That little waif was locked in a room on her own. What you did was wicked beyond belief. Your actions were catastrophic. She is now coming to life from what was possibly a living death."

Following the sentencing DC Rachel Di Nicola said: "What this child has experienced in its short lifetime is simply unimaginable, and how anyone can allow a child to suffer in that way is beyond belief.

"The shocking neglect was on an indescribable scale and the suffering the child experienced will impact them for the rest of their life. All those involved in the case have been left deeply shocked by what we uncovered, and we have all been amazed by the way the child has recovered since they were discovered, and we hope that this recovery continues."

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