A DRUG taking mother-of-six slept during the day and went out until the early hours leaving the family - including a baby - home alone.

Burnley Crown Court heard how the 35-year-old mother clothed the youngsters from rubbish tips and left them to rely on friends for food. The children, aged between 15 and one-year-old, lived in a Burnley house where needles were left lying around, had headlice and had to go to school on their own.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons after the court imposed a section 39 order to protect the identity of the children, escaped jail - but only because she had not hit the children, said a judge.

Judge Ian Webster described the case as a "terrible story of neglect and inadequacy" on her part. The judge put the woman on probation for two years, and said he could only hope that the service would help her in facing up to life and behaving like a responsible parent.

The woman admitted four counts of child cruelty, between 1997 and 1998.

Joe Boyd, prosecuting, told the court the offences came to light after the woman's eldest child, now an adult, wrote a letter to a solicitor and two youngsters went to the social services, saying they didn't want to go home. One girl was interviewed and told of a catalogue of neglect by her mother during the previous 12 months. The youngster explained her mother got clothes from rubbish tips and the children would spray deodorant on themselves before going to school. Their home had no hot water for eight months, the children had headlice and the 15-year-old was responsible for bringing up the young children.

Mr Boyd said a number of needles were exposed in the house and the mother, who took amphetamine, slept during the day and went out at night leaving the 15-year-old to look after brothers and sisters.

The youngsters got most of their food from friends and very little baby milk was in the house. The mother was often not in the house in the early morning and the children had to get themselves off to school.

Richard Hunt, defending, said the woman was a very poor and inadequate mother and realised her guilty pleas had serious implications on her ability to look after her children. The children, all in care since last June, were seeing their mother once a week.

The woman had not been physically violent towards the children. She had neglected them, not physically abused them. The mother now conceded she needed sentencing in a way that would help her.

Mr Hunt went on: "The probation service can help this lady. She hasn't forced the children to give evidence and perhaps the children will benefit from knowing their mother is not going to prison for this."

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