Has there been a thread about this? Horrifying story about what can happen when someone becomes addicted to the internet

[nameymcnamechange]

Rather upsetting story in The Telegraph.

I don't understand why her prison sentence was suspended and also am at a bit of a loss as to why the children didn't do more to help themselves. The oldest is 13.

But absolutely staggering that someone could become so addicted ...

Very sad indeed.

i think there was a LOT MORE goign on there

very sad story, she was a widow - who knows what was going on in that poor womans head - how sad that she had no one, it would seem, to turn to.

A lot more what?

like er mental illness
bereavement

the sentence is suspended if there is no real risk to the public and if she can be punished outside.
so its serious enought o get to prison
it also gives a real threat other parts of the sentence, the 75 hours of unpaid work. so if she breaches them shes off to the clink. They will also have seen how much remorse she had, if she pleadedd guilty and is said elsewhere she had really changed her ways.

In a case like that unless you have read the presentence reports its pretty impossible to judge the sentence

Well, yes, addiction is a mental illness.

Am still more than mildly surprised that child neglect (let alone starving animals to death) doesn't automatically carry a custodial sentence.

You learn something new every day.

agree... you wonder why the kids didn't say something to someone don't you?

poor things :(

Very sad that it happened but a 10 and 13 year old are old enough to know what was happening was wrong.
Perhaps if there was a history of abuse etc and they had been brought up/traumatised/brainwashed into thinking this was normal then I would excuse them from not alerting teachers etc.
It does make you wonder about online role paying games though. Reminds me of when dungeons and dragons was banned.
And what is wrong with cold baken beans out of the tin. I eat mine like that.

The sad fact is the kids were badly neglected and 2 dogs died because she failed to feed them. The kids lived in squalor and the dogs probably died a horrendous slow and painful death. She may have had awful MH issues and it is very very sad she had no support network, but I still think her sentence was remarkably lenient. I hope her and her kids are now getting the help they need

i like em cold too.
I presume it was gradual though, not from tidy to squalor straight away.

and also aghree that clearly the whole story isn't there.

ps - cold baked beans straight from the tin are lovely

Stop it with your cold baked beans.

I am quite sure my 9 year old dd would speak up if I failed to feed her and let two dogs die in the dining room.

From that story - 'making the officers wretch' - what do they mean?

they mean retch

"also am at a bit of a loss as to why the children didn't do more to help themselves."

I didn't help myself when I was neglected at that age because I didn't have a parent who taught me those skills in the first place.
To be able to learn them on your own is hardly instant (and I'm still learning now).

I didn't like it but as I knew that parents are supposed to know and do what's best for us, I didn't think to question it or to tell anyone.

Hope that gives you some insight into how this can happen.

retch = heave, gag, almost vomit

Mumi
But this mum supposedly hadn't neglected the children until very recently. Of course I can quite understand why a child who has been neglected for his or her entire life might not have the skills (or even knowledge of anything better) to raise the alarm. This is precisely why I am uneasy about this story and the leniency of the sentence.

The headline is sensationalist.

This is a story of boring old neglect with a nice 'computer games ruin lives' angle. It's a horrible story of child abuse reduced down to one of the (no doubt) many contributing factors.

Lazy journos strike again.

Seems pretty obvious that the real problem was not the internet but the depression that struck after her husband's death. The 6 months thing must be wrong: if she had been a capable mother up till then, surely she would already have taught her children basic survival skills? There must have been a far longer back story for the children not to react.

I would think that the children didn't say anything because they had already lost their Dad, and didn't want to lose their Mum What child would want to get their Mum in trouble when she is so sad?

Quite.

The judge says she was a good mother before this and hence the suspended sentence. But, purely because of the ages of the children and their apparent compliance, I can't quite believe it.

If your average 11 year old can safely get themselves to and from secondary school on their own, why couldn't her children do anything to raise the alarm about their horrendous living conditions?

My post was in response to Cory and Lougle.

Not perhaps get her into trouble, but a 13yo (going by the ones I know) would know about things like depression and understand that their Mum needed help. They would also understand that she could get into serious trouble neglecting children and animals. They would at the very least be able to ring Childline and take advice from them. If, that is, the situation had only developed within the last 6 months.

Well, my post answers that. They must have known that they would lose their Mum, had already lost their Dad, so made a choice

at how the cold baked beans make it into the headline, but not the two rotting dogs in the living room.