Mother left son tied in pram for 10 days

A mother was jailed for 15 months yesterday after tying up her young son in a pram for 10 days while she stayed with her boyfriend.

A mother was jailed for 15 months yesterday after tying up her young son in a pram for 10 days while she stayed with her boyfriend.

The 22-year-old woman, who cannot be named, had left her three-year-old son alone, tightly strapped down in the pushchair.

She visited him once a day, to feed and check him. Merthyr Crown Court was told that she lied to friends about her absence from home, claiming that her son was being cared for by her mother.

But it was his grandmother who called the police after becoming increasingly worried about the child. She had not seen him for three months. Sue Ferrier, for the prosecution, said the mother had been staying with her boyfriend or at a sick friend's house. She left her son "abandoned and neglected at home where he was on his own".

After the police broke down the door to the house in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, they had to cut the child free. He was found in tears, wearing only a sweater, in a rubbish-strewn room.