A mother who concealed her child in a drawer for three years responded with a haunting four-word phrase when the situation came to light.
Originating from the UK, the woman, whose identity remains undisclosed to safeguard her child’s privacy, has been imprisoned for ‘extreme neglect’ after authorities found the toddler.
According to a UK court’s statement, in February 2023, law enforcement and social services were alerted to the presence of a hidden child in a bedroom located in Cheshire.
Upon discovering the toddler in the drawer, the authorities immediately placed the child into protective care.
Subsequent investigations revealed the child was born in March 2020. The child’s existence was kept secret from both family and friends, and the birth was never officially registered.
Throughout much of her early life, the child was concealed in a bedroom, even using a drawer under a bed as a sleeping area.
The mother reportedly returned at times to feed the child milky Weetabix using a medicine syringe and to change diapers. However, the toddler spent extensive periods alone in the drawer while the mother worked and cared for her other child.
The girl was reported to be severely undernourished and suffered from a cleft palate, among other medical issues, for which the mother never sought treatment.
A social worker expressed her profound shock upon entering the bedroom.
The social worker noted: “Since March 2023, I have frequently reflected on (the baby) and this case. My initial reaction when entering the mother’s bedroom was disbelief.
“Upon entering, the bed appeared quite high, possibly a double mattress, preventing me from seeing (the baby). Her mother walked around the bed’s side, and I followed.
“I was startled by what I witnessed and was deeply shocked to observe a baby looking up at me from within a divan drawer.”
When the social worker inquired if that drawer was where she kept her baby, the mother confirmed: ‘yes, in the drawer’.
Judge Steven Everett, while handing down a sentence of seven years and six months in prison to the woman on Tuesday (November 26), stated: “You deprived that little girl of any love, attention, interaction with others, a proper diet, and much-needed medical care for a cleft palate….That little waif was isolated in a room by herself.
“What you did was unimaginably cruel. Your actions had devastating consequences. She is now beginning to emerge from what was likely a living death.”