10yo boy forced to sleep in coal bunker for over a year by mum and her partner

[Marv]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ess-potty.html

A 10 year-old boy was forced to live in a coal bunker for more than a year, by his own mother.

The youngster slept in the padlocked outhouse every night and was imprisoned for hours at a time during the day if he misbehaved.

While the boy's mother, in her 30s, and her partner, in his 40s, lived in comfort in the main house the boy's room contained a soiled mattress, a dirty sleeping bag and a urine-filled potty.
[...]

'There was no air, it was really stale, and cold. There was a small window on the far side which was sealed and a single light bulb that was a bodge job.

'There was a bowl with some stale food in it. It's nothing short of being a prisoner.'

He said the couple had admitted to keeping the boy locked in the outhouse overnight - and during the day they would send him in there if he was naughty and stole food from the kitchen.

The couple, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the boy, pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court on Friday to a charge of child cruelty by neglect between January 1 2010 and January 25 2011.

They pleaded not guilty to one charge of ill-treating the boy in a manner to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.

Concerns about the boy's welfare were reported to police last year.

When officers and social workers called at the house they found the boy living in horrific condition in an old outhouse which had been built to the side of the property.
[...]

When interviewed by police the boy said 'it felt like living in a box' and 'creepy'.

The boy was given medical treatment and has since been placed in care.

Det Con Normanton added that throughout the police's investigation 'the blame was put on the child' by the parents and he'd been 'ostracised from his family'.

Judge Anthony Russell warned the boy's mother and her partner they could be jailed.

The pair were bailed for sentencing on May 18 and were told not to contact the boy directly or indirectly and not to have any unsupervised contact or communication with a child under 16 unless supervised by the social services.

urm.....''could be jailed''????!!!! That should be a given, ffs!

[cubby]

another child punished for "stealing" food!!! How long would it have been before he also starved to death, alone and probably forgotten by his mother in his coalhouse prison?

I was always begging my kids to eat more!!! They didn't have to steal it I gave it to them freely. I know this is just the way they chose to completely control everything about this little boy. I'm glad control is not my thing.

[Marv]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...led-years.html

A mother and stepfather who forced their 11-year-old son to live in a filthy converted coal bunker have each been jailed for two years.

Bullied and constantly hungry, the traumatised boy was made to live and sleep in the room, described as a 'cell' by social workers, and reduced to using a potty as he was locked up each night until morning.
[...]

Judge Norman Wright told the pair during sentencing: 'This was a flagrant abuse of power and a gross breach of trust.'

He added: 'The room has been described as a cell but it seems to me it was akin to a prison cell from a third world country, not the home of an 11- or 12-year-old living in this century in this country.'
[...]

The youngster lived there between the ages of 11 and 12 before his school became concerned as the boy was always hungry in class. Police and social workers visited the house and he was placed in foster care.

Doctors who examined the 11-year-old said he was underweight and below average height for his age, and treated him for anaemia.

Since being placed with foster parents he has put on weight and his behaviour has improved dramatically, which authorities have described as a 'remarkable achievement for him'.

But the youngster will have been left traumatised and psychologically damaged by his experience, the court previously heard.

Lawyers for the defendants said the boy was 'undoubtedly' a very difficult child to manage but the parents were inadequate rather than wicked.

Judge Wright said the physical effects to the boy from living in 'truly appalling' conditions may have been remedied but the psychological harm 'will be unknown'.

'It is bound, in my judgment, to be profound,' he said.

The court heard hat the child's mother was 'subordinate' to her 'dominant' partner but he ruled their culpability was equal.

'You were his mother and it seems to me that you were not someone cowered by your co-accused,' Judge Wright added.

'You were in a position to stand up (to him) and you did not. Your counsel say that you were someone who loved your son very much. If that was so, how can you behave like this?'.

The boy's natural father told ITV Granada Reports: 'It was horrible to think that someone had done that to my son. It was horrible. I would never do it to an animal, let alone a child.'

He said the child's mother had limited access for him to the boy and he was unaware of his plight.

'I feel guilty,' he said. 'Guilty because I wasn't there to prevent it. Conditions in prison cells are far better than the way my son had been kept and for his age, to be treated like this, it's just despicable.