A 30 year old mother maltreated her own son, by leaving him to stay in a coal bunker for more than a year.
The boy slept in in the padlocked outhouse every night and was imprisoned for hours at a time during the day if he misbehaved; the boy’s room contained a soiled mattress, a dirty sleeping bag and a urine-filled potty.
The case being described by the police as “Barbaric” parents of the child admitted to their cruel behavior to the child in court.
In the room where the boy stayed, dirty potty which was filled with urine and kept next to the mattress ‘The child had been scratching stuff on the walls while he was locked up. It’s barbaric.
‘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.
According to detective Constable Matt Normanton, he said the parents 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.
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.