Neighbours, unable to shake the image of a little girl in nothing more than a grimy shirt with tears cascading down her cheeks, regret not acting sooner.

“I told my wife that is my regret,” says Stephane Jerome, who long suspected the parenting going on at the apartment closeby was far from ideal.

“For the kids’ sake, we should have done something. That is my mistake but I was trying to mind my own business.”

The Lebrun St. resident is one of several neighbours speaking out after police and Children’s Aid officials took three young girls into care Monday.

They were found home alone, the eldest — just three years old — was dressed only in a shirt and had traces of dried feces on her.

With the girl was her two-year-old sister and a nine-month-old baby who was sitting at the top of a flight of stairs when cops finally got in through the second-floor patio door.

Jerome insists the children appear to have been left alone for a shocking 20 hours or more.

“She left at 11 Sunday night,” he said. “I was only out for a half-hour at least. The same lights were on the whole time.”

That being the light just inside the doorway.

He further insists the children lived in an abusive home, something police sources say is being investigated along with allegations this may not be the first time the children were left alone.

Police have been in touch with the mother by phone but they still had not met with her in person late Wednesday.

Police are investigating claims the mother had left someone else in charge of the children.

Neighbours are skeptical, to say the least.

“I’ve seen her grab the children violently by the collar. Physically throw them into a cab. Drag them by the collar the length of the parking lot,” he said, adding their mom who still hadn’t been seen Wednesday, would often direct vulgar language at the little ones.

Officially, police aren’t saying how long they think the kids were alone.

It was more than an hour at least.

Around 4 p.m. neighbours like Adam Gallant stopped what they were doing to investigate the incessant crying.

He could hear it over the music in his basement recording studio. Hearing no evidence of an adult voice, he went upstairs and outside to investigate.

“I still have the look of that kid stuck in my head,” he says.

Gallant has since created a Facebook group called Protect The Kids From Being Alone.

Police Chief Charles Bordeleau wants people to do just that, by staying vigilant.

“It’s very disturbing,” he says. “It’s disturbing to see three kids in that state, with nobody around. Children that age should not be left alone for any amount of time.”

doug.hempstead@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @DougHempstead