Cheshire mother of child hidden in drawer from birth jailed | Global News Avenue

A mother who hid her baby daughter in a drawer for the first three years of her life has been jailed for seven years and six months for “extreme neglect”.

Prosecutors said the girl “had never been exposed to sunlight or fresh air” and was not discovered until a visitor heard her crying at her home in Cheshire.

To protect the girl, we cannot reveal the identity of her or her family.

The girl’s mother admitted four charges of child abuse at a previous hearing and was sentenced at Chester Crown Court.

Judge Steven Everett said the woman “deprived this little girl of any love, any proper affection, any proper attention, any interaction with others, a proper diet, much needed medical care”

“A bright little girl who is now perhaps slowly recovering from the near-living death in that room,” he added.

The court was told the mother hid the baby’s existence from her siblings and kept the secret from her partner who often stayed at home by hiding it in a drawer of the sofa bed.

Rachel Worthington, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the child was found unresponsive to her name and had been left alone at home “to fend for herself” for long periods of time without adequate food.

The court was told the girl was so severely malnourished that she looked like a seven-month-old baby rather than a three-year-old and was fed milky Weetabix via a syringe.

She also suffered from a cleft palate and several other health issues, but her mother did not seek treatment.

The offenses cover a period from early 2020 to early 2023, when a visitor to the home heard a noise upstairs and spotted the girl lying in bed.

A social worker was called to the house after the discovery and described the “overwhelming horror” she saw when she entered the bedroom.

The child was found to have tangled, misshapen hair and a rash.

The social worker said: “I looked at her mother and asked, ‘Is this where you are keeping her?’ The mother responded matter-of-factly: ‘In the drawer’.

“I was surprised the mother didn’t show any emotion…

“Other than her mother’s face, mine was probably the only face (the girl) had ever seen, and that terrified me beyond belief.”

The court was told the child, who is now in foster care, has serious developmental problems as a result of neglect.

In an interview with police, the woman said she had no idea she was pregnant and was “really scared” when giving birth.

She said the child was not always placed in a drawer under the bed and the drawer was never closed.

She told police the child was “not part of the family.”

The mother wiped away tears as she described how other children she said she cared for no longer lived with her.

Judge Everett said the woman’s actions were “completely contrary to people’s beliefs”.

“You tried to control the situation as carefully as possible, but your terrible secret was discovered purely by chance,” he said.

“I don’t remember in 46 years a case of this severity.”