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27/06/2008
Neglect Mum Jailed For 18 Months
A mother who left her two-year-old son home alone while she partied has been jailed for 18 months.
It is understood the toddler was penned in the kitchen by a baby gate and had to fend for itself by rummaging in rubbish bags for food.
The child was discovered three days later when water from an overflowing sink filled with dirty dishes leaked into a neighbour's flat below.
It is reported that police forced entry into the property and found the child crying and standing in several inches of water wearing a soiled babygro and surrounded by dirty nappies and broken plates.
It is understood the child had turned on the tap and flooded the kitchen.
It is also reported that he had been using a pile of dirty laundry for a bed.
His mother, Kelly Tollerton, 22, of Lincoln, was told at her trial last that a prison sentence was "almost inevitable".
The court was told that the mother's actions were a "deliberate act of abandonment" so that she could go out and party.
Tollerton, denied child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, at Lincoln Crown Court.
She was convicted of one count of child cruelty by way of neglect, one of child cruelty by way of abandonment and one charge of perverting the course of justice.
Recorder William Harbage told the defendant that her parenting of the child was "totally inadequate" and that in his opinion she was "not a fit mother".
"Your conduct arouses feelings of horror and revulsion among all right-thinking people," he said.
It is understood that Tollerton and her partner, Ken Hill, 36, socialised all weekend but that their babysitter "let them down".
During the trial, Tollerton said she "agreed it wasn't perfect but that there is a difference between it being untidy and filthy" and that it was "untidy but it wasn't filthy".
The mother also said she "took care of the boy to the best" she could and that she was "never neglectful of him at all".
It is understood the abandonment came after a six-month period of neglect.
She had also claimed during the trial that her friend had looked after her son during the weekend in question.
It is understood that social workers had been helping Tollerton but the support was stopped before the offences were committed.
The court also heard that Tollerton had a low IQ but the recorder said that he was "satisfied" that she was "not stupid" and knew how to look after a child.
Speaking after the trial, Detective Constable Jayne Tolley said the case "was very upsetting and distressing" for everyone concerned in the investigation.
The spotlight has also been put on social services and health visitors as it was revealed that the child had been put on an at-risk register at the age of two months because he was "seriously underweight". He was later removed from the register.
The boy is now being looked after by foster carers.
Meanwhile, in another court, a 30-year-old mother whose baby son died from a drug overdose has been jailed for five years for manslaughter.
Ex-prostitute Sabrina Ross would regularly collapse at her Bristol home, leaving 14-month old son Rio access to her Class A drugs.
On the night he died, Ross had gone out to buy drugs and returned to find him dead after drinking methadone.
Ross wept as judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans told her she killed her son by creating a 'completely unsafe' environment.
At Bristol Crown Court he said: "Rio was inhaling Class A drugs and there is reason to believe he ingested methadone.
"It was gross neglect that ended his life. Your child looked to you for protection and you breached that trust. No term of imprisonment can give Rio his life back."
(DS)
It is understood the toddler was penned in the kitchen by a baby gate and had to fend for itself by rummaging in rubbish bags for food.
The child was discovered three days later when water from an overflowing sink filled with dirty dishes leaked into a neighbour's flat below.
It is reported that police forced entry into the property and found the child crying and standing in several inches of water wearing a soiled babygro and surrounded by dirty nappies and broken plates.
It is understood the child had turned on the tap and flooded the kitchen.
It is also reported that he had been using a pile of dirty laundry for a bed.
His mother, Kelly Tollerton, 22, of Lincoln, was told at her trial last that a prison sentence was "almost inevitable".
The court was told that the mother's actions were a "deliberate act of abandonment" so that she could go out and party.
Tollerton, denied child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, at Lincoln Crown Court.
She was convicted of one count of child cruelty by way of neglect, one of child cruelty by way of abandonment and one charge of perverting the course of justice.
Recorder William Harbage told the defendant that her parenting of the child was "totally inadequate" and that in his opinion she was "not a fit mother".
"Your conduct arouses feelings of horror and revulsion among all right-thinking people," he said.
It is understood that Tollerton and her partner, Ken Hill, 36, socialised all weekend but that their babysitter "let them down".
During the trial, Tollerton said she "agreed it wasn't perfect but that there is a difference between it being untidy and filthy" and that it was "untidy but it wasn't filthy".
The mother also said she "took care of the boy to the best" she could and that she was "never neglectful of him at all".
It is understood the abandonment came after a six-month period of neglect.
She had also claimed during the trial that her friend had looked after her son during the weekend in question.
It is understood that social workers had been helping Tollerton but the support was stopped before the offences were committed.
The court also heard that Tollerton had a low IQ but the recorder said that he was "satisfied" that she was "not stupid" and knew how to look after a child.
Speaking after the trial, Detective Constable Jayne Tolley said the case "was very upsetting and distressing" for everyone concerned in the investigation.
The spotlight has also been put on social services and health visitors as it was revealed that the child had been put on an at-risk register at the age of two months because he was "seriously underweight". He was later removed from the register.
The boy is now being looked after by foster carers.
Meanwhile, in another court, a 30-year-old mother whose baby son died from a drug overdose has been jailed for five years for manslaughter.
Ex-prostitute Sabrina Ross would regularly collapse at her Bristol home, leaving 14-month old son Rio access to her Class A drugs.
On the night he died, Ross had gone out to buy drugs and returned to find him dead after drinking methadone.
Ross wept as judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans told her she killed her son by creating a 'completely unsafe' environment.
At Bristol Crown Court he said: "Rio was inhaling Class A drugs and there is reason to believe he ingested methadone.
"It was gross neglect that ended his life. Your child looked to you for protection and you breached that trust. No term of imprisonment can give Rio his life back."
(DS)
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