Mother jailed for keeping secret baby hidden in drawer alive for three years

A mother who kept her baby daughter hidden in the drawer of a bed for the first three years of her life has been jailed over the “unimaginable” neglect her child experienced.

The girl, born in a bath at a home in Cheshire in northwest England, had been “kept a secret” from her mother’s family and friends, was not registered and had never laid eyes on another person apart from her parent.

“The child had spent much of its life hidden in a bedroom at the address, even sleeping in a drawer under the bed,” Cheshire police said.

“As a result of the woman’s actions, the child was severely underdeveloped, malnourished and also had a number of medical conditions which had never been treated.”

The child’s mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted to the extreme case of neglect.

In October she pleaded guilty to four charges of child cruelty for offences between the girl’s birth in March 2020 and when she was rescued in February 2023.

The mother was jailed for seven years and six months during sentencing at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday.

The child was born with a cleft palate and was initially fed by her mother, who later decided to place her in a drawer in the bed.

She would return “now and again” to feed her “milky Weetabix” through a medicine syringe and change her nappy.

“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 Crown Prosecution Service said following the sentencing.

“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.”

‘She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air’

Police and social services were tipped off to the situation in February 2023 when the mother’s partner thought he heard a baby.

Following the noise upstairs, where he was not usually allowed alone, he found a “clearly malnourished” child with matted hair and a cleft palate.

“My initial feelings and thoughts when we entered the mother’s bedroom was of disbelief,” one social worker told the court.

“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 child could not crawl, walk, talk or communicate, and repetitiously rocked to self-soothe.

She was dehydrated, had a swollen abdomen and feet in an abnormal position, nappy rash, poor muscle bulk and floppy limbs.

At almost three years of age, her development was on par with a 10-month-old and the delays were attributed to the “extreme nature of the neglect”.

The mother told police she had been in an abusive relationship with the child’s father and did not want to tell him she was pregnant.

Since being taken into care, the child has made improvements but requires further surgeries to rectify the cleft palate.

“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,” senior crown prosecutor Rachel Worthington said.

“She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found.”

Detective Constable Rachel Di Nicola said it was “beyond belief” that anyone could allow a child to suffer through “what this child has experienced in its short lifetime”.

“The shocking neglect was on an indescribable scale and the suffering the child experienced will impact them for the rest of their life,” Di Nicola said.

“All those involved in the case have been left deeply shocked by what we uncovered, and we have all been amazed by the way the child has recovered since they were discovered, and we hope that this recovery continues.”