Cheshire mother who kept her baby hidden in a drawer for three years 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.

Rachel Worthington of 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.

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

The offences cover 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 when entering the bedroom.

The court was told the child’s siblings and the rest of her family did not know she existed and she had no social interaction with others.