Mum jailed for child neglect after seriously ill son, 4, was found living in home of ‘absolute squalor’ crammed with TWENTY uncaged ferrets and FOURTEEN dogs

Boy discovered by chance when policeman was investigating missing dog

Mother, 21, sent to prison for two years in 'worst case' PC has ever seen



Traumatised child was so neglected that he cannot eat and has to be fed through a gastric tube

Two dead birds found in cages and house in Lancashire was filthy with rubbish, foodstuffs and animal faeces everywhere

A mother has been jailed for child neglect after her 4-year-old son was discovered ill in 'appalling squalor' in a house filled with 20 ferrets running loose and 14 dogs.

The boy was taken to the high dependency unit at a Lancashire hospital, where he was only able to take food through a gastric tube.

He’d been living in ‘absolute squalor’, a court heard, with rubbish, rancid food and animal faeces on the floor. There were also two dead birds in cages.

¿Absolute squalor¿: A court was told the house was piled high with rubbish, rancid food and animal faeces on the floor. There were also two dead birds in cages

A policeman chanced upon the boy who cannot be named for legal reasons at the house in east Lancashire, when he visited to investigate a missing dog.

The boy's 21-year-old mother was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison at Preston Crown Court, Lancashire, for neglecting her son.

PC Lloyd Jones who found the boy said that the conditions he encountered were ‘the worst he had ever seen’, the court heard.

PC Jones found the child on a mattress.

He was so ill he needed a feeding tube to his stomach and had a serious bacterial infection in an open wound on his torso.

The 4-year-old boy was made so ill by his living conditions that he is unable to eat and has to be fed via a gastric tube

Judge Anthony Russell, QC, the recorder at Preston Crown Court, told the boy’s mother: ‘The neglect was over a period of two months and appears to have commenced when you moved from one home to another.

‘The child is only able to take food through a gastric tube. You lived alone with him and a very large number of animals.

‘The police called at your home about a missing dog and came across a scene of absolute squalor.

‘The house was filthy with rubbish, foodstuffs and animal faeces everywhere.

‘I have seen the photographs and it is shocking that anyone can let a house get into that state.

‘An experienced police officer described the conditions as the worst he had ever seen.’

A policeman who discovered the boy by chance when he went to investigate a report of a missing dog described the conditions as the worst he had ever seen

Judith McCullough, defending, told the court her client had been suffering from depression.

She said: ‘The circumstances in which she found herself were escalating and worsening as time went on and of course, in addition also had a child who required more care than perhaps some other children may have done.

‘She accepts that she failed to care for him in the way she ought to have done.

‘She has shown genuine remorse and she picked herself up by the bootstraps and has made efforts to move forward.

‘She is well aware she might receive a custodial sentence and has written a letter to her son to be read to him if it is the case.

The birds: When police investigated they found two dead birds in cages

‘There will be no repeat of this behaviour. That does not mean she is not a young woman who clearly requires support and to examine what went wrong during the last part of last year.’

But Judge Russell told the defendant, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of child neglect at an earlier hearing: ‘Although it has been argued that there was a lack of support available to you, I do not accept that argument because you had previously had support and knew it was available.

‘I do accept that you have had a difficult history. I also accept that you now acknowledge that your care was inadequate.

‘Such mitigation cannot extinguish the fact that this was very serious neglect.’

Speaking after the hearing, a Lancashire Police spokesman said: ‘Cases like this which involve the ill-treatment of young children are always very hard to deal with, but we welcome this sentence.

‘This was a particularly appalling case of child neglect involving a vulnerable 4-year-old boy who was living in truly shocking conditions.