A mom who kept her child in a drawer for three years provided a chilling explanation as to why she did it.
After the horrific story came to light, the woman from the UK, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her child, has since been jailed for 'extreme neglect'.
Police and social services were informed that a child had been discovered hidden in a bedroom at an address in Cheshire in February 2023, the court was told.
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Officials quickly found the toddler in the drawer, who was unable to walk and speak, and did not respond to her name.
The child was immediately taken into care, after officials concluded she was so severely malnourished that she had the appearance of a seven-month-old.
The woman was interviewed by police, where she revealed why she left her daughter in the drawer for three years.
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She chillingly explained how the 'baby was not a part of the family', so she was ultimately left in a drawer for three years of her life.
Further enquiries found that the child had been born in March 2020, but had been kept secret from friends and family and had never been registered.
The mother would come back now and again to feed her milky Weetabix through a medicine syringe, while the infant would sleep in a drawer under the bed.
The toddler would spend hours alone in a drawer as the woman went to work and took her other child to school.
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It was a social worker who discovered the infant, and she described her 'overwhelming horror' at what she saw on entering the bedroom.
The social worker said: "Since March 2023 I have thought about (the baby) and this case often. My initial feelings and thoughts when we entered the mother’s bedroom was of disbelief.
"From entering this room, the bed was high, possibly a double mattress, so I could not see (the baby). Her mother walked round the side of the bed and I followed.
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"I was taken aback by what I saw and was extremely shocked to see a baby looking up at me sat in a divan drawer."
The woman was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison on Tuesday (November 26).
Judge Steven Everett said: "You starved that little girl of any love, attention or interaction with others, a proper diet, much needed medical attention for a cleft palate....That little waif was locked in a room on her own.
"What you did was wicked beyond belief. Your actions were catastrophic. She is now coming to life from what was possibly a living death."
Callum Jones