Mother kept boy, 10, locked up in a coal bunker for more than a year with only a mattress and potty

By
Pamela Owen

04:54 EST, 22 April 2012

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04:54 EST, 22 April 2012

A 10 year-old boy was forced to live in a coal bunker for more than a year, by his own mother.

The youngster slept in the padlocked outhouse every night and was imprisoned for hours at a time during the day if he misbehaved.

While the boy’s mother, in her 30s, and her partner, in his 40s, lived in comfort in the main house the boy’s room contained a soiled mattress, a dirty sleeping bag and a urine-filled potty.

The soiled mattress and dirty sleeping bag in the coal bunker where the boy was kept for more than a year

The soiled mattress and dirty sleeping bag in the coal bunker where the boy was kept for more than a year

A tiny window and a badly-wired lightbulb provided his only light and he was often fed lumps of butter or raw meat.

Police described the conditions as
‘barbaric’ after the boy’s mother and her partner admitted child cruelty in court.

Detective Constable Matt Normanton, of Lancashire Police, said he’d ‘never seen anything like it’.

‘The child was found to be kept in a cell, living in poor, inhumane conditions,’ he said.

‘It was smaller than a [police] cell. It was just big enough for a single mattress and a ceramic potty which was full of urine.

The dirty potty which was filled with urine and kept next to the mattress

The dirty potty which was filled with urine and kept next to the mattress

‘The child had been scratching stuff on the walls while he was locked up. It’s barbaric.

‘There was no air, it was really stale, and cold. There was a small window on the far side which was sealed and a single light bulb that was a bodge job.

‘There was a bowl with some stale food in it. It’s nothing short of being a prisoner.’

He said the couple had admitted to keeping the boy locked in the outhouse overnight – and during the day they would send him in there if he was naughty and stole food from the kitchen.

The couple, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the boy, pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court on Friday to a charge of child cruelty by neglect between January 1 2010 and January 25 2011.

They pleaded not guilty to one charge of ill-treating the boy in a manner to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.

Concerns about the boy’s welfare were reported to police last year.

When officers and social workers called at the house they found the boy living in horrific condition in an old outhouse which had been built to the side of the property.

It had been boarded up from the outside and a wall knocked through from the family’s lounge to make an entrance, which was padlocked.

When interviewed by police the boy said ‘it felt like living in a box’ and ‘creepy’.

The boy was given medical treatment and has since been placed in care.

Det Con Normanton added that throughout the police’s investigation ‘the blame was put on the child’ by the parents and he’d been ‘ostracised from his family’.

Judge Anthony Russell warned the boy’s mother and her partner they could be jailed.

The pair were bailed for sentencing on May 18 and were told not to contact the boy directly or indirectly and not to have any unsupervised contact or communication with a child under 16 unless supervised by the social services.

 

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WHAT?! Why? Why do people do this to children? Beyond evil.

We look after our dog better than that !!

…Police described the conditions as ‘barbaric’ after the boy’s mother and her partner admitted child cruelty in court……….””””
This is certainly Barbaric and Cruel, but most of all it is Torture and should be treated as such in the Courts. Criminal, Wicked, Vile People of an age when they should know right from wrong.
Where did this Mother learn such “discipline”……….. as for the Partner of the woman (who cannot be named) is a Beast.
How could this have happened ……….did the poor Boy go to school. if so why was an Alarm not raised.
Just too horrific to Visualise.

Poor poor child.. Lock these monsters up, so called parents…

Agencies were alerted last year??What have they been doing for all this time? Targeting innocent families no doubt whilst kids who really need the help are left to rot in outhouses. Disgraceful. Hope the poor boy finds a family to love him and recovers from this awful start.

What an awful world we live in.
I hope that this boy finds love and comfort in a new home.

It breaks your heart to read such horror stories how could anyone treat a dear child so? Poor little lad, what ever help he gets now the damage has been done and I doubt he will be able to live the life he should have had if only he had been born into a different family. Not only should the couple be jailed with the mother who failed her son so badly given the longer sentance they should both be sterilised.

This week alone, there have been so many child abuse stories, most of which I’ve not been able to read…. All of them suffering at the hands of parents. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that everyone should have a test and licence to have children. It makes me sick to my stomach to think of all these children living in pain and terror everyday.

The mother and partner should be publically flogged then executed. They’re worse than animals. SO SO DISGUSTED!

so, the lesson here, is .. treat your child worse then a dog in a third world country,because even if you do get caught, you WONT go t prison. it worries me that there are plenty of children in this country living with parents who only want them for their post office payment.

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