Cheshire mother who kept her baby hidden in a drawer for three years jailed

The court was told the mother concealed the baby’s presence from her siblings by hiding her in the drawer of her divan bed, and kept her secret from her partner, who often stayed at the house.

Rachel Worthington, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said the child did not respond to her own name when found, and had been left alone for long periods to “fend for herself” without enough food.

The court was told the girl was severely malnourished, to the point she looked like a seven-month-old baby and not a three-year-old child.

She also had a cleft palate and several other medical issues which her mother had not sought treatment for.

The offences covered a period from early 2020 to early 2023, when the girl was discovered after a visitor to the home heard a noise upstairs and found her on the bed.

A social worker was called to the house after the discovery, and described her “overwhelming horror” at what she saw on entering the bedroom.