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

Probably another of the things we'll never know, Sunflowersinwinter

"The neighbours hearing" may have been easier though, since they'd only have to say it was the child of a visitor

I can't imagine her other children received good care from her. I wonder whether SS were involved before this.

I posted this on the other thread 🧵 about this that I found before this one.

An 18 year old who never had her birth registered who also has siblings that still live with their mum somewhere in the North East of England

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-cant-job-home-passport-34181263

I remember this very well, Oakleaffy - once seen it could hardly be forgotten - but then the Chinese regime run a very different society to ours, and for all our faults I can't imagine this being sanctioned by the state in the UK

I read that story yesterday and I am not surprised she is NC with her mother. I imagine not being registered is the t tip of the iceberg of neglect this young lady probably endured.

Or food and water.

When I leave I make sure my dogs have enough water, and if the weather is hot I make sure they are comfortable.

This poor baby would have been left for hours with no access to water.

I can see how this stayed hidden during lockdown, no visitors or people out on the streets, people working from home and kids not at school. If the baby had ended up dying during the pandemic, people might never have found out she existed. I expect this isn't the only case across the world and things have happened which nobody will ever find out about.

The poor little girl will never recover from the damage done. Malnourished, developmental delays, trauma, no socialisation at the most critical stages of life. I'm sure there are foster parents trying their best with her but her life chances are ruined.

It wasn't something made up by the reporter FFS. It was a direct quote of the prosecutor. Or don't you think that reporters should actually report what the prosecutor says in cases like this? There will be very little information released, and this will have been a key quote in a very brief statement - of course the reporter is going to report it.

Coming back to this today, and I've realised I still feel exactly the same. The woman who did this was absolutely monstrous. I told DH and he cried, he also (like many posters) couldn't fathom why she didn't just take the baby and leave her somewhere to be found. The fact she went about her life, meeting a new partner, working, "caring" for her other children, making Christmas happen (I say this because Christmas is a big event. It takes effort and planning. It's also often a time of year when people feel even closer to their families.), appointments, just...life.

And all the while she kept that poor, innocent little girl locked up.

Another person mentioned Fritzl. He came to my mind, too. Didn't he also live a normal life with a wife and his other children? I don't want to Google him because it's too much on top of this. The majority conclude that he was a monster and I don't see pity out there for him. So why are they giving it to this woman? Is it just because she's a woman? Why do we feel that women are incapable of being evil?

RTFT

Legally, torture is defined as the infliction of severe pain by a public official, or someone acting on behalf of a public official, in the pursuit of their official duties.

i.e.
policeman beating you up to extract a confession: torture
random beating you up because he feels like it: assault

Reference: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/part/XI/crossheading/torture

Confidential obviously but it would be interesting to know the other dc's take on things. Were they loved and well cared for or was it a case of no obvious red flags at school so no concerns were raised.

You can't abuse and severely neglect a baby for 3 yrs and home life for everyone else be completely lovely and normal surely?

The reason she hasn't been publicly named is to protect the identities of her children.

I've also considered how well cared for her kids were. On the one hand, I hope they were - though that makes it even more callous and wicked what she did. On the other, if they weren't...God, I hope she gets haunted for the rest of her life by images of what she's done. Every. Waking. Moment.

There's plenty of places she could have left the baby where she would be safe and found quickly. Hood up, scarf or mask over face, wear non distintive clothes to avoid CCTV. Leave her in church, library, railway station, toilets of supermarket or any department store.

so sad the mother must have conceived her maybe by another man that is just a guess as she did not know she was pregnant from what was said i assume she gave birth on her own as the hospital would have picked on her cleft palate etc from the delivery. a terrible tragic thing all round

I mean, it's one thing to give birth in secret and be in an abusive relationship. But to keep this up. Every day. For 3 YEARS, Including when she ends up with a new partner - suggesting she got away from the previous one who presumably the girls biological father..?

I was reading on another talk board about the kids who were adopted from Romanian orphanages. These were kids who were deprived of any formal care and attention other than feeding, if that. The poster on the Other Place mentioned the guy he knew who was adopted from there had developmental issues but was generally well adjusted.

This book got name checked

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Love-Matters-Affection-Shapes/dp/1583918175

I think what the poster meant is that adoption is an option which might be considered at a much earlier stage, before damage is done, than in the UK and without any stigmatisation.

Yes I wondered about that, did she actually care for them properly or was it just that no concerns had been raised and they’d somehow flown under the radar.

The pictures of the divan drawer the poor little girl was kept in looked absolutely filthy, obviously the drawer would be but the surrounding bed area didnt look much better.

The fact that her partner wasn’t “allowed” to go upstairs makes the woman sound quite controlling and volatile. If you reverse the genders, a man telling his female partner she isn’t forbidden to go upstairs or do something or go somewhere in his home would be seen as a huge red flag.
Also the partner apparently found the little girl yet left her and went and told his mother and it was her who rang social services?
Wonder why the partner didn’t just ring 999 after finding a child in that state. Could have been in shock but sounds like a very weird atmosphere and dynamic in the house aside from the heinous treatment of the little girl in the drawer.

I've also considered how well cared for her kids were

I expect many of us have, @GiddyRobin, but then the bar for intervention's set so high now that a lot can slide through before action's taken, and it's not as if a horror like this would have been easily foreseen

I also wonder about the anonymity "to protect the children" now they've thankfully been removed and could presumably be given new names, but of course we don't know the details around this either - and while in a few days the public will have largely forgotten about this, the poor children will carry the burden for life

The pictures of the divan drawer the poor little girl was kept in looked absolutely filthy

Edited to add it might perhaps have been a stock image, @theresabluebirdinmyheart?

Sorry cross posted but I agree regarding the care of the older kids.

There's no crime of torture beyond what you refer to. However criminal cases all too frequently use the word in a literal, non legal sense to describe what an accused did.

What this woman did can't legally be torture. In the literal, non legal sense, of course it was.

Also the partner apparently found the little girl yet left her and went and told his mother and it was her who rang social services?
Wonder why the partner didn’t just ring 999 after finding a child in that state.

Yes, I agree. He sounds rather young. Also, it would be a lot to take in, for one, as even a well-seasoned social worker was overwhelmed by what she saw and the implications of it for the child's life. And if you've no experience of social services I expect you wouldn't know to call them or call the police or call a hospital or an ambulance.

Also the partner apparently found the little girl yet left her and went and told his mother and it was her who rang social services?
Wonder why the partner didn’t just ring 999 after finding a child in that state. Could have been in shock but sounds like a very weird atmosphere and dynamic in the house

I wondered that. In the scheme of things makes little if any difference. He seems to have acted immediately as did his mother and social services.

But then his mother called the baby's mother before calling anyone else?
They all know each other well enough to have their phone numbers?
The dynamic is so weird.