Mum kept baby hidden in drawer for nearly 3 years !!

[benjaminjamesandgraham]

Even Christmas day she was kept in a drawer - oh how can someone be so cruel
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gz1dv8ly2o

I don't think this is a weird comment. It's a poster trying to make sense of what they've read. Thinking about how they've lived their life whilst a little girl has been through such suffering.

The sad thing is they'll be lots of people on this thread thinking 'thank goodness she'll be shown love now' and reassuring themselves she's been saved and she's fine now.

The reality will be this will severely impact her for the rest of her life. Couldn't walk, talk, eat, communicate all by the age of 3? It's so sad for that poor little girl.

She would have been shut in that drawer in the July 2022 heatwave. It would have been like a Furness

This reminds me of the Romanian orphanage scandal. Utterly heartbreaking and with life long consequences for the little girl. I really hope the rest of her life she is loved and cared for.

Yeah I agree. Just because she wasn't 'hit' - and tbh we don't know that, this is actually physical abuse and severe neglect. Being stuffed into a drawer reminds me of stress positions, which is physical abuse. Tbh that poster is an idiot and it's better to give up interacting.

People in good mental health don't behave like this. Something was clearly very very wrong. Obviously she needs to go to jail and nothing can excuse her behaviour. But I do think it would surprise people how difficult it is to give a baby up for adoption voluntarily in this country. I often think if we made it more like in the states where birth mothers are venerated, would we see less abuse and neglect of children?

I watched this on the news yesterday whilst eating my dinner and couldn't finish, it made me feel sick to the stomach, the poor darling child.

A family opposite my parents had their 5 children removed from their care a few years ago due to neglect. They were starving them. The mother has gone on to have another baby ffs. Her other children are now all in care.

Not sure if it's been said but we really should give thanks to the wonderful foster carers out there, they do such a wonderful job and it must be so very heartbreaking at times. According to the news stories the little girl is doing well with the foster carers and hopefully, from now on, will only ever know love and kindness in her life however difficult her challenges may be due to the very start of her life.

Neglect is abuse. Just as someone who does nothing , stands by and watches a child being physically abused is also an abuser. Abuse is a wide spectrum.

Obviously noone is saying that, but your loss is clouding your judgement.

I'm sure the mother will have had mental health assessments, and if the defence had been making a case for leniency based on mental health issues it would have been reported.

This woman raised other children, ran a home and held down a job. She would have had a midwife health visitor etc. with her previous pregnancies and known how to access them, could have called her GP, asked her parents for support even spoken to someone at work or one of her DCs teachers.

I agree she probably made some poor decisions during the pregnancy but it was her decision to compound that by not seeking help once the baby was born.

Her other DC, of young, would most likely have accepted not going in her room and the tv or radio playing as normal.

The boyfriend was certainly presented with red flags, but possibly was being respectful to the dc by keeping out of their space, who knows, I suspect he was curious and took an opportunity to investigate at which point he seems to have done the right thing immediately.

I don't think you'll have had to have lost a baby to think her actions are abhorrent and she absolutely deserve a custodial sentence.

'Again, before you want to try and twist what I'm saying... I'm not saying anything the mother did is okay, just saying I havnt read anywhere where it says the mum physically abused her'

It is physical abuse to leave a child in a drawer for 3 years. Starved, malnourished, the size if a 9 month old. That is physical abuse as well as emotional abuse, neglect, psychological abuse. The list goes on.

Am emaciated baby in a drawer. In who knows what state.

This woman needs a psychiatric institution, not a prison.

'This woman raised other children, ran a home and held down a job. She would have had a midwife health visitor etc. with her previous pregnancies and known how to access them, could have called her GP, asked her parents for support even spoken to someone at work or one of her DCs teachers.'

Yes she was a fully functioning member of society by all accounts. Not some recluse living an isolated existence. She <speculating sorry> must've 'othered' this poor child because of the dc's medical problems and thought it was ok to keep her like a pet. I wonder what the defence's comments were, how on earth did she explain her awful behaviour?

She absolutely needs a prison.

The social worker literally said she'd never seen anything so bad in her entire career, which started in 2006.

This is the single worst thing she has ever seen.

Can you not read??

No one has said the behaviour is not abhorrent (in fact I used that exact word)

But people can see how this could happen.

Have you never experienced days where you barely function following your loss?

It’s a memorable date, so the partner could definitively confirm when they were out of the house and when they came back - much harder to prove exact timings on a random Tuesday in November. So easier to prove the degree of neglect.

3 years of it while functioning as usual with the rest of her life?
Socialising, having fun? But still taking that little bit of time to open the drawer and give the odd wotsit to just keep her alive?

I wouldn’t even keep a pet like this.

No decent person would

This case is unbelievably cruel, this poor child.

Does that not tell you that there is more at play here that is not being reported??

They have said key info is protected to protect the identity of the children.

How can you be so blinkered to think that this is as straightforward as she is just a monster.

No one, no woman, no mother would ever consider this ok without there being something very wrong mentally.

Cultural issue? A child with disability not being 'accepted' by her or her wider family? Just a thought...it's horrendously sad to read about this case.

Ok, even if you imagine they've seen worse/just as bad sights, I imagine the horror comes from the inescapable memory of this poor child combined with the knowledge of what this woman did to her, resulting in problems so extensive I'm sure it's not even known fully nor never will be. But I dread to think what she looked like. I'm sure she didn't just look like a 7 month old baby - as if that's not bad enough when she's 3.

I also struggle with how you can say this. The thought of this baby being confined in such a small space alone, unable to stretch her legs to grow and develop properly makes me feel sick. After reading this case yesterday, I watched my own toddler sleep in her spacious and comfortable cot bed last night, bathed and in clean clothes and with a full stomach. She's much younger but already has so much personality and knowledge of the world this much older girl has been completely neglected of. The horror of this story hit me again like a sucker punch.

All child abusers have something wrong mentally. And they are all monsters.

I can't fathom what the woman was planning to do, did she think she could hide her forever? I suppose being that mentally unwell, she probably hadn't got to that point in thinking.
Imagining what she has been through is horrific. A relief she has been found before it was too late.