Northamptonshire mum jailed for encouraging daughter to take drugs and leaving her home alone with younger brother

A Northamptonshire mother has been jailed after encouraging her teenage daughter to take drugs before leaving her and her young son alone for three days while on a 'bender'.

The 34-year-old woman, who has not been named for legal reasons, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison at Northampton Crown Court today (Tuesday, July 27).

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking QC told her: "There is significant harm to these children.

"This is a deliberate disregard for the welfare of both of your children so you could take drugs over the course of three days."

Sinjin Bulbring, prosecuting, said the mum was involved in an altercation with two other women outside Daventry police station on September 18, 2019.

She had been found half-dressed and wearing one slipper outside Wetherspoons, saying she had 'done something terrible which everyone would hate her for'.

It turned out the mum had left her 14-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son alone at her home in a Northamptonshire village for three days.

All while she took cocaine, cannabis and other drugs at her partner's home in Daventry - where the teenager had been encouraged to take drugs too.

After being collected by police, the teenager told them she had struggled to feed her brother as they relied on 'c**p' as well as strawberries, chocolate and frozen food.

"She suffered with panic attacks and nervous breakdowns, she said her mother had ruined her life," Mr Bulbring told the court.

"She said she was happy her brother hadn't gone through what she had but he had been through so much for his age.

"She wasn't how he felt as he didn't express his feelings but it probably had affected him although she was doing her best to keep him out of the way."

The teenage girl said she, her mother and her partner had taken drugs at their house four days earlier before the adults left, saying the mum would return the next morning to take her son to school.

She never showed up so the teenager tried to take him but they missed the bus - they rang their mother's partner who paid for a taxi to take the boy to school and the teenager and her boyfriend to his flat.

There the mother was drunk but she took some more cannabis and later left to pick up her son from school and left them at home for three days until the police arrived.

The mother denied allowing her daughter to take drugs when interviewed by police but pleaded guilty to five counts of child cruelty at Northampton Magistrates' Court on May 21.

Judge Lucking told her: "You came to the attention of police as you had gone to the police station in a half-dressed and hysterical state and you were clearly under the influence of drugs.

"You had been on, and please excuse the phrase, a three-day bender with your friend and then-partner who supplied the drugs.

"You said you had done something terrible and you there summed up precisely what you had done."

Today the court heard how the mother was in a vulnerable position as she felt isolated and unsupported in her village home and her partner 'took advantage' of her situation.

Judge Lucking said she had been exposed to class A drugs as a child and she had now done the same to her own daughter.

The children were taken into police protection after their mother's arrest and have been living with family ever since.

The partner was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for two years, and told to pay £240 after pleading guilty to possessing class A, B and C drugs.

The court heard how he had turned his life around since his arrest as he was now clean of cocaine and the class C drugs he was taking had been prescribed to him to help with his mental health issues.

He had initially been charged with supplying drugs to the teenager but those charges were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.