Mother of child hidden in drawer from birth jailed

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

The girl, who prosecutors said had "never known daylight or fresh air", was only discovered when a visitor to their house in Cheshire heard her crying.

To protect the girl, neither she nor members of her family can be identified.

The girl's mother, who admitted four charges of child cruelty at a previous hearing, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court.

Judge Steven Everett said the woman had "starved that little girl of any love, any proper affection, any proper attention, any interaction with others, a proper diet, much-needed medical attention

“An intelligent little girl who is now perhaps slowly coming to life, from what was almost a living death in that room," he added.

The court was told the mother concealed the baby's presence from her siblings by hiding her in the drawer of her divan bed, and kept her secret from her partner, who often stayed at the house.

Rachel Worthington, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the child did not respond to her own name when found, and had been left alone for long periods to "fend for herself" without enough food.

The court was told the girl was severely malnourished, to the point she looked like a seven-month-old baby and not a three-year-old child, and had been fed with milky Weetabix through a syringe.

She also had a cleft palate and several other medical issues which her mother had not sought treatment for.

The offences covered a period from early 2020 to early 2023, when the girl was discovered after a visitor to the home heard a noise upstairs and found her on the bed.

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 social worker said: "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…

"It became an overwhelming horror that I was probably the only other face [the girl] had seen apart from her mother’s."

The court was told about serious developmental issues the child - who is now in foster care- had as a result of the neglect.

In a police interview, the woman said 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 that the drawer was never closed.

She told officers the child was "not part of the family".

The mother wiped away tears as she described how her other children, who she was said to have looked after well, no longer lived with her.

Judge Everett said what the woman did "totally defied belief".

"You attempted to control this situation as carefully as you could but by sheer chance your terrible secret was discovered," he said.

"I don’t remember a case as bad as this in my 46 years."