A seven year old Fylde girl told police how she and her younger brother were left home alone by their mother.



They would be told not to open the door to their house in a Fylde village to anyone, when their 31 year old mother abandoned them.

They were left without any proper food, and in the company of a bull dog,as the mother sometimes went into Blackpool to buy drugs and sometimes stay out overnight.

The mother pleaded guilty to child neglect of the seven and four year olds by abandonment when she appeared before Blackpool Magistrates.She cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The justices sent her for sentence at Preston Crown Court saying it was a pattern of similar incidents which culminated in the woman’s arrest.

Jim Mowbray,prosecuting, said that a neighbour alerted police when she realised that the children had been left alone in the property for a number of hours on the evening of April 14 last year.

Their mother had earlier asked the neighbour if she had any”whizz” (amphetamine) and when she was told not, decided to go and acquire some from an address in North Shore,Blackpool.

“When police arrived they were let in by the seven year old.The officer found glass on the floor from a broken photo frame, the toilet was blocked and the children were in the house with the dog,” said Mr Mowbray.

“When the mother finally returned the officer was surprised at her lack of reaction to the situation.”

The neighbour who had raised the alarm said she was often asked to look after the children and at times felt she had no option but to agree.She told officers that she had been in the mother‘s house and rarely saw any food.

She had not agreed to look after the children on the night in question, but heard them crying an shouting through the wall.

In a interview with police the older child described her mother as a “crazy woman”

“We were told not to answer the door and had to put ourselves to bed when she left us alone,” said the child.

The girl added:”Sometimes it happens five times a week.The teachers give us food when we get to school.”

Leisa Splaine defending said:”These are serious circumstances and she accepts she fell way short of her parental duties.She had been a victim of domestic violence and harassment herself from a former partner.”