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‘ Home Alone’
mother who went to Spain
gets 6 months
A mother who left her two young children at home alone while she went on holiday with her boyfriend was jailed for six months.
The 34-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted abandoning the youngsters, aged six and twelve, at the family’s second floor flat at Birmingham.
She also pleaded guilty to leaving them for long periods at night while she worked as a barmaid.
The woman, who sat sobbing in the dock and clutching a teddy bear throughout the hearing, left for Spain on November 16 and intended to return four days later.
She left the children notes about the daily routine, including how to boil water for spaghetti Bolognese and who to call in an emergency.
In interviews with police, the older child said she was ‘scared’ at night, while the younger said he thought his mother was ‘stupid’ for leaving.
He mistakenly thought she had gone to watch England’s football friendly with Spain in Madrid but she was staying at a villa belonging to her boyfriend’s parents, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
The woman, who returned early after police were contacted anonymously about the children’s situation, made a ‘full and frank’ admission following her arrest.
She claimed to have thought it was acceptable to leave them because her daughter was mature.
Alan Parker, defending, urged the judge not to jail her because of the punishment she had already suffered.
He said she had missed her daughter’s 13th birthday earlier this week because she has been banned from having unsupervised contact with either child. He added: ‘The real punishment in this case is not her appearance here but the loss of her good name, the shame that has been, quite rightly, heaped upon her and will, no doubt, follow her to her dying day.’
The children will spend Christmas with their father who split from their mother two years ago. Before the incident, he would see the children every weekend.
He found out his children had been abandoned after police contacted him to say his daughter had refused to open the door to child protection officers.
Prosecuting, Harpinder Lally said: ’The police found the children by themselves. The daughter said that she knew her mum was going on holiday. She was to look after her brother on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
‘She said that her mother had told her that if there was an emergency there were some mobile phone numbers to call or she could just climb over the balcony.’
Sentencing, Judge Alan Taylor told the mother: ‘You are a person hitherto of good character doing your best, no doubt, to earn your living and look after your children.
You must realize that my duty is not only to think of your needs, but to act on behalf of society who must disapprove most vehemently of this type of conduct.’
The children’s father said after the hearing: ‘I thought she would have been given a stronger sentence.
‘But it sends an important message out to parents that this sort of behaviour cannot be tolerated.’
He added: ‘The children are with me at the moment and it will stay that way until she comes out of prison and contests the matter. But now all we are going to concentrate on is enjoying Christmas together.’
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