Mother jailed for hiding baby in drawer for 3 years: 'She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air'
A picture of the drawer where the baby was hid. (Credit: The Crown Prosecution Service)
CHESHIRE, England - A mother in the United Kingdom was sentenced to a total of seven years and six months in jail for hiding her new baby in a drawer in her bed for three years, feeding her through a syringe.
The woman, who can't be identified for legal reasons, recently pleaded guilty to four charges of child cruelty at a hearing at Chester Crown Court in England.
Authorities said the baby was born in 2020 with a cleft palate. The mother gave birth in a bath at her home. She told police she had been in an abusive relationship with the father of the baby and didn't want to tell him she was pregnant.
Prosecutors never figured out why the mother decided to place the baby in her divan bed and leave her there.
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According to court documents, the mother initially fed the baby herself with her milky Weetabix, a type of cereal, through a medicine syringe and changed the baby's diapers.
The mother also went to work, taking her other children to school but leaving the infant child in the drawer for hours, according to court documents.
Doctors said because of this, the baby's growth and physical and mental development were severely impacted due to the lack of care, attention and food and spending time in a drawer. They later said the baby could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive "self-soothing" movements, such as rocking.
A picture of the drawer where the baby was hid. (Credit: The Crown Prosecution Service)
The child was discovered in February 2023 after the mother's partner heard a noise from what he thought was a baby. He had gone into the house to use the bathroom after the mother left her keys in the door despite the mother usually not allowing him upstairs alone.
The toddler also had a 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.
Despite being 35 months old, doctors said she had a delayed development that was equivalent to a 10-month-old.
However, doctors said the child has started to vocalize and continues to make process. She had also undergone surgery to fix her cleft palates, but more surgery is needed.
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The partner followed the notice and found the child, now a toddler, with a cleft palate, matted hair and clearly malnourished.
He then ran from the house and told his mother, who then called the mother of the defendant.
Police and social workers were called to the scene.
"Since March 2023 I have thought about (the baby) and this case often," the social worker said told the court. "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 social worker continued.
"This child has been subjected to extreme neglect of her health, development, and basic care needs since before she was born," Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said in a news release.
"This child has never had a birthday present, a Christmas present or anything to recognize these days. She’s had no interaction with any of her siblings," she continued. "She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found."