Mother jailed for hiding her child in a drawer for three years

A mother who hid her new baby in a drawer in her bed for three years and fed her through a syringe has been jailed.

The woman, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, hid the birth of her baby girl from her family and friends.

The baby was born in 2020 with a cleft palate and the mother, who says she gave birth in a bath at her home in Cheshire, initially fed her herself.

Then, for a reason that the Crown Prosecution Service was never able to establish, she decided to place the baby in a drawer in her divan bed and leave her there.

She came back now and again to feed her milky Weetabix through a medicine syringe and change the child’s nappies. 

As time went on, the mother went to work and took her other children to school and left the child in the drawer, alone for hours on end. 

The baby’s growth and physical and mental development was severely impacted by the lack of care, attention and food and the restrictions of a life spent in a drawer.

The child was discovered in February 2023, when a partner of the mother’s heard a noise from what he thought to be a baby. He had gone back into the house to use the toilet after the defendant had left her keys in the door. She usually didn’t allow him upstairs alone.  

He followed the noise and discovered a child of almost three years old with a cleft palate, matted hair and clearly malnourished.

He ran from the house in shock and told his mother who then rang the mother of the defendant. Social workers and the police were called. Those first on the scene gave moving statements to the court about what they found.

The social worker stated: "Since March 2023 I have thought about (the baby) and this case often. 

"My initial feelings and thoughts when we entered the mother’s bedroom was of disbelief. From entering this room, the bed was high, possibly a double mattress, so I could not see (the baby). 

"Her mother walked round the side of the bed and I followed. I was taken aback by what I saw and was extremely shocked to see a baby looking up at me sat in a divan drawer. 

"(The baby) stared at me and was rocking back and forth. 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 and appeared blasé about the situation. I asked had anyone else ever seen (the child)? Mum stated no. 

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

"Having been a social worker since 2006, I have never experienced such an extreme case of blatant child neglect and cruelty. The mother showed no remorse or emotion which I found extremely difficult to comprehend."

The mother later told police officers that she’d been in an abusive relationship with the father of the baby and didn’t want to tell him she was pregnant.

When the baby was examined by medical experts,  she could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive “self-soothing” movements, such as rocking. 

She was also significantly malnourished, unkempt, dehydrated, she had an untreated cleft lip and palate, swollen abdomen, significant nappy rash, and poor muscle bulk.

She also had floppy limbs, swollen feet in an abnormal position and redness to the outer limbs. At the age of 35 months her development was markedly delayed and was the equivalent to that of a 10-month-old. 

It has been confirmed that the developmental delay was a result of the extreme nature of the neglect.

Within two weeks of her admission to hospital, the child was vocalising, seeking adult comfort and crying to make her needs known. She has continued to make progress and has been operated on twice to rectify the cleft palate. However, she still requires further surgery.

The mother pleaded guilty to four charges of child cruelty at a hearing at Chester Crown Court on 9 October 2024 and today (26 November 2024) she was sentenced to a total of seven years and six months' imprisonment.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “This child has been subjected to extreme neglect of her health, development, and basic care needs since before she was born.

“She was left on her own for long periods of time, sleeping in an inappropriate and too small space, and receiving inadequate nutrition.

“When the mother went out with her other children or to work, the child was simply left to fend for herself.

“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.

“This case has shocked all the prosecution team and has been very difficult to work on. After reading the evidence, I had to take myself away and try and process what I had read.

“I am a mother myself and simply couldn’t comprehend what this defendant had done or why.

“The motive behind the mother’s behaviour is still not clear, but that is not the role of the Crown Prosecution Service.

“Our job is to bring the person responsible to justice. That has now been done and it is the profound hope of the CPS that the victim in this case recovers sufficiently to live as full a life as possible.”