TWO parents forced their young sons to live in filthy and unhygienic conditions and subjected them to long-term ‘systemic neglect’.
The mother and father, who also rarely bathed their children and forced one of them to sleep on the sofa so the spare room could be used to store their DVD collection, were sentenced to 190 hours’ community service between them in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
The boys, one of them of primary school age, were sent to school wearing dirty and smelly clothes and said their mother would call them ‘retards’ and ‘bastards’ and other expletives. The parents cannot be named to protect the identity of the boys, who have since been taken from their St Saviour home and placed in care while Social Services decide what to do with them.
The 31-year-old mother admitted intentionally or recklessly inflicting physical abuse and neglect on boy Y and intentionally or recklessly inflicting emotional abuse and neglect on boy X between 1 March and 9 July last year.
The 36-year-old father was charged with intentionally or recklessly causing emotional harm and neglecting boy X and intentionally or recklessly neglecting boy Y between 1 March and 9 July. Yesterday the Magistrate’s Court heard about the tragic lives the boys had endured at home.
He sentenced the mother to 100 hours’ community service – the equivalent of a four-month jail sentence – and 12 months’ probation. The father received 90 hours’ community service – the equivalent of three months in jail.
