Mother Sentenced for Hiding Baby Daughter in Drawer for First 3 Years of Her Life: ‘Extreme Neglect’

• A woman in Cheshire, England has been sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for keeping her baby daughter hidden in a drawer under a bed for the first three years of her life
• The child, who had been hidden from friends and family, was discovered in February 2023
• “What this child has experienced in its short lifetime is simply unimaginable,” Rachel Di Nicola, of the Cheshire Constabulary in England, said in a release

A mother in England has been sentenced for keeping her baby daughter hidden in a drawer under a bed for the first three years of her life.

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the woman, who hasn’t been named for legal reasons, was sentenced to seven years and six months at Chester Crown Court in northern England, per releases shared by the Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The verdict came after the mother pleaded guilty to four charges of child cruelty at a hearing on Oct. 9, the CPS confirmed. The authorities identified the child as a baby girl and added that she was fed through a syringe and left “alone for hours on end” while being kept hidden from family and friends.

“The charges relate to offences which occurred between 18 March 2020 and 18 February 2023,” police said.

The child was discovered hidden in a bedroom at an address in Cheshire in February 2023 and immediately taken into care, police added.

“Following enquiries, it was found that the child had been born in March 2020, but had been kept secret and never been registered,” the release stated. “Instead, the child had spent much of its life hidden in a bedroom at the address, even sleeping in a drawer under the bed.”

“As a result of the woman’s actions, the child was severely underdeveloped, malnourished and also had a number of medical conditions which had never been treated,” police added.

The CPS (which handles all public prosecutions in England and Wales) said the baby girl had been found after a partner of the mother’s, who usually wasn’t allowed upstairs alone, heard the sound of a baby after he returned to the property to use the bathroom.

“He followed the noise and discovered a child of almost three years old with a cleft palate, matted hair and clearly malnourished,” the CPS release stated.

The mother told officers “she’d been in an abusive relationship with the father of the baby and didn’t want to tell him she was pregnant,” the CPS added. 

“When the baby was examined by medical experts, she could not crawl, walk, talk or make any communicative noises and made repetitive ‘self-soothing’ movements, such as rocking,” the release stated, adding that “she was also significantly malnourished, unkempt, dehydrated, she had an untreated cleft lip and palate, swollen abdomen, significant nappy rash, and poor muscle bulk.”

“She also had floppy limbs, swollen feet in an abnormal position and redness to the outer limbs. At the age of 35 months her development was markedly delayed and was the equivalent to that of a 10-month-old,” the CPS added.

One of the first social workers on the scene said in a statement to the court that they were “taken aback by what I saw and was extremely shocked to see a baby looking up at me sat in a divan drawer,” per the CPS release.

“I looked at her [mom] and asked, ‘Is this where you keep her?’ The mother replied matter of factly, ‘yes in the drawer,’ ” they added. “I was shocked the mother did not show any emotion and appeared blasé about the situation. I asked had anyone else ever seen (the child)? [Mom] stated no.”

“It became an overwhelming horror that I was probably the only other face X (the baby) had seen apart from her mother’s,” they continued. “Having been a social worker since 2006, I have never experienced such an extreme case of blatant child neglect and cruelty. The mother showed no remorse or emotion which I found extremely difficult to comprehend.”

Detective Constable, Rachel Di Nicola, said, “What this child has experienced in its short lifetime is simply unimaginable, and how anyone can allow a child to suffer in that way is beyond belief,” per the police release.

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Senior Crown Prosecutor Rachel Worthington, of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, stated: “This child has been subjected to extreme neglect of her health, development, and basic care needs since before she was born.”

“This child has never had a birthday present, a Christmas present or anything to recognize these days. She’s had no interaction with any of her siblings,” Worthington said, per the CPS release. “She hadn’t known daylight or fresh air and didn’t respond to her own name when she was first found.”

CPS said the child has been continuing to “make progress,” and has “been operated on twice to rectify the cleft palate,” but “still requires further surgery.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.