A mother who hid her baby girl in a drawer to keep her a secret from her partner and other children for three years has been jailed.
The little girl was hidden in a drawer under the bed all her life and had “never known daylight or fresh air” until she was found weeks before her third birthday by the woman’s partner when he returned to the house one morning to use the toilet after the mother had left, Chester Crown Court heard.
The toddler, who had been fed milky Weetabix via a syringe, was so severely malnourished that she had the appearance of a seven-month-old infant.
The child had been left to “fend for herself” without food for long periods of time, and did not respond to her own name.
She was found with matted hair, deformities, rashes, a cleft pallet and other medical issues for which her mother had not sought out medical advice or care.
She was left alone when her mother stayed with relatives at Christmas, and had never been given a birthday or Christmas present.
The mother admitted child cruelty and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Honorary Recorder of Chester Judge Steven Everett told her: “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. You attempted to control this situation as carefully as you could but by sheer chance your terrible secret was discovered.
“The consequences for (the child) were nothing short of catastrophic – physically, psychologically and socially.”
He said the child was an “intelligent little girl who is now perhaps slowly coming to life from what was almost a living de@th in that room”.
The mother concealed the baby’s presence by hiding her in the drawer of her divan bed and kept her secret from her partner, who often stayed at the house.
The judge ruled the mother cannot be identified to protect the victim’s identity – a common restriction in child protection cases.
The offences took place from around the start of 2020 until 2023 when the child was discovered after her cry was heard.
Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, said: “She was kept in a drawer in the bedroom, not taken outside, not socialised, no interaction with anybody else.”
He told the court the child had a developmental age of zero to 10 months when she was first taken into hospital and was significantly malnourished and dehydrated.
Mr ap Mihangel said the infant was left alone while her mother took her other children to school, went to work and when she stayed with relatives over Christmas.
When the mother’s boyfriend began to stay at the property overnight the child was moved into another room and left there alone, the court was told.
The child was discovered when her mother’s partner returned to the house one morning to use the toilet after the mother had left.
He heard a noise and entered one of the bedrooms, where he saw the child.
The man left the home but alerted family members and later that day social services attended and found the child in the drawer of the bed
In a statement, the social worker said she saw the child sitting in the drawer and asked the mother whether that was where she kept her daughter.
“She replied matter of factly ‘yes, in the drawer’,” the social worker said.
“I was shocked the mother did not show any emotion and appeared blase about the situation.
“It became an overwhelming horror that I was probably the only other face (the child) had seen apart from her mother’s.”
Two police officers involved in the case were in tears as a statement from the child’s foster carer, which the judge described as “truly devastating”, was read to court.
The carer said: “It became very apparent she did not know her own name when we called her.”
In an interview, the child’s mother told police she had not known she was pregnant and was “really scared” when she gave birth.
She said the baby was not kept in the drawer under the bed all the time and said the drawer was never closed, but told officers the child was “not part of the family”.
She told social workers she had an abusive relationship with the child’s father and did not want him to find out about her.
Matthew Dunford said there had been an “exceptional set of circumstances” including the woman’s mental health, a volatile relationship with the father of the child and the Covid lockdown.
Her other children, who she was said to have looked after well, no longer live with her since the toddler was discovered.
Senior crown prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “This child has never had a birthday present, a Christmas present or anything to recognise these days. She’s had no interaction with any of her siblings.
“She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found.”
The woman pleaded guilty in October to four counts of child cruelty, reflecting her failure to seek basic medical care for the child, abandonment, malnourishment and general neglect.
