A Liverpool woman has been jailed for leaving her three children alone for two weeks. The youngest child was just three years old at the time.
The woman who will not be named to protect the identities of her children abandoned them to visit her native country.
A court heard she lied to their teachers and pretended they were accompanying her on the trip.
Police visited the woman’s home after they received a tip-off that the young children were home alone, according to The Liverpool Echo.
Prosecuting lawyer Paul Blasberry said: “Officers, not surprisingly, attended straight away at 10.55am to check the welfare of the children.
"Once they arrived they knocked on the door and there was no reply. They noticed the blinds were closed and they could not see into the house.”
When the police went around the back of the house, they saw the children running upstairs to hide.
They managed to persuade the children to open the door and gained entry.
The frightened young children initially claimed their mother had gone to the shop and would be coming back soon. However, one of the children then broke down in tears and admitted that their mother had been gone for over a week.
The court heard the house had some food for the children and it was tidy but cold. Officers found a small amount of cannabis and a damaged electrical cable on the premises.
The children were taken into care while officers tracked down the mother. They later discovered she had been gone for fifteen days.
Officers arrested the mother on her return to the UK who told them she had been to visit her sick mother. She admitted telling the children not to answer the door or leave the house and acknowledged the fact that they would not have been able to cope in an emergency.
The woman claimed her brother told her their mother was dying although this turned out not to be the case.
Her defence lawyer told the court that her client had been complying with social services since her arrest, who were only allowing her supervised contact with her children at a family centre.
She had left food in the cupboards and money in the house but had not arranged any kind of adult supervision for them.
Passing sentence on her, Judge Alan Conrad remarked: “It’s hard to understand how anybody who claims to be in any way a caring parent could act in such a way.”
The woman broke down and sobbed as she was led to the cells.
