Addict parents jailed for cruelty

Two drug addicts whose baby died after being tucked under a bed have been jailed for cruelty.

The father, 37, and mother, 32, from London, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday to five and three years' in jail respectively.

The court heard how their seven-month-old baby was put in a compartment used for storing clothes and toys beneath her sister's bed when she cried.

Sometimes a sock was put in her mouth, although there was no evidence she had anything in her mouth when she died, the jury was told.

These children were treated in such a way that would horrify those caring about children

Judge Christopher Moss

Her two sisters were also mistreated. The older girl, then aged seven, was starving and would have soap forced in her mouth.

Her three-year-old sister had to have all her milk teeth removed because she was fed so much sugar to repress her appetite.

The court was also told the children lived in filthy conditions and would be left alone while their parents went out looking for drugs.

Judge Christopher Moss told them: "These children were treated in such a way that would horrify those caring about children.

Manslaughter charge dropped

"The baby, even at her tender age, would have suffered feelings of panic, fear and rejection.

"You confined her in these stifling conditions, sometimes with a sock kept in her mouth, for no other reason than that her crying annoyed and inconvenienced you."

He said they thought more about "where the next rocks of cocaine were coming from" than their children.

The father admitted six counts of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.

A manslaughter charge against him was dropped because doctors could not agree on the baby's cause of death.

The mother was also jailed for child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.