Doncaster social services criticised by judge over ‘shocking cruelty of two young girls’

A judge has criticised Doncaster social services after hearing of a shocking catalogue of cruelty to two young girls over a four-year period.
  The court was told how the girls, now aged eight and ten, were repeatedly beaten with a slipper and belt, had food taken from their plates to give to pet dogs and were sent to school crawling with lice wearing clothes which stank of urine.

Judge Jacqueline Davies said it was a “horrid process of intimidation towards two defenceless little girls” and jailed the 31-year-old mum for 21 months and her ex-boyfriend, 26, for three years and three months at Doncaster Crown Court.

The judge slammed social services after hearing the children were removed from the child protection register six months after they were deemed to be at risk.

Judge Davis told the mum-of-five “It is concerning that social services who placed these children on the child protection register in April, 2005 should remove them six months later, especially given your lengthy history of neglect involving your first two children.”

The court heard the two eldest children of the mother have been taken into care because they were neglected.

It emerged the two girls’ plight was even worse when the mother worked the night shift at a bakery and her lover was left in charge.

The mum knew about the assaults but did nothing.

The alarm was raised when the girls’ grandmother, who refused to enter the filthy house, alerted social services and the police.

The children cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Prosecutor Richard Shgeldon said the violence towards the girls happened when their mother was working or out of sight.

The elder girl told police they had both been hit with a slipper on the hands, back and bottom. She had been struck 50 times with a belt buckle and had her face squeezed by the boyfriend and her head banged against a wall.

She had also been punched in the stomach by the boyfriend, who is not her father, so hard she had to crawl across the floor because she was in so much pain.

The girls told their mother to “tell him to stop” but she failed to intervene.

When the mother bought things for the children her partner said “they don’t deserve anything”. One witness said he took food from them to give to the dogs.

Teachers at their school described the girls as “ill-kempt, in ill-fitting clothes and stinking or urine with insect bites to their body and lice on their head.”

Mr Sheldon said: “The school said the mother had a similar appearance as if she didn’t have a penny to her name and skinny but she always said the marks on her children were accidental.”

The girls’ welfare declined when the mother began working nights and in January, 2008 it was noted the girls went to school in freezing weather wearing summer dresses and smelling of urine.

When interviewed by police the boyfriend said the girls were “little bastards” who didn’t know how to look after themselves and they would not be told off so he did not believe his behaviour was unreasonable.

The mother said she didn’t want him to hit the kids but admitted doing nothing to protect them because she had nowhere else to go and he would not leave the house.

Mr Sheldon said the partner often referred to the girls as “tarts” and “scruffy idiots.”

The boyfriend admitted wilful assault and ill treatment of the children. The mum admitted wilful neglect.

They also admitted causing unnecessary suffering or injury by failing to provide adequate accommodation and care.

Kath Goddard, for the mum said she was a “damaged and vulnerable” woman who needed help.

But she had begin to turn her life around and the jail term would prevent her from having contact with her new baby son, over which court proceedings are taking place.

Michael Caine-Soothill, for the boyfriend, said he had been on the “at risk” register himself as a child and his behaviour was motivated by a lack of parenting skills rather than a “wilful want to hurt children.”