A mother who kept her baby daughter hidden in a drawer for the first three years of her life has been jailed for seven years and six months for “extreme neglect”.

The girl, who prosecutors said had “never known daylight or fresh air”, was only discovered when a visitor to their house in Cheshire heard her crying.

To protect the girl, neither she nor members of her family can be identified.

The girl’s mother, who admitted four charges of child cruelty at a previous hearing, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court.

Rachel Worthington of 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 cover a period from March 2020 to February 2023, when the girl was discovered after a visitor to the home heard a noise upstairs and found her on the bed.

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