TWO PENZANCE children were neglected so badly that they became morbidly obese, their teeth were left to rot and they were covered in filth and sores, a court has heard.
Social services have been criticised over the case, which saw the young brothers put on the child protection register – and then removed a year later.
Their 46-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had initially denied two counts of wilful neglect, but changed her pleas to guilty a day and a half into her trial at Truro Crown Court.
Her sons, now aged eight and nine, were taken into foster care in June 2010 after she became ill and had to be taken to hospital.
Alistair Verheijen, for the prosecution, told the court that the foster carers found the children to be in a poor state.
"They turned up in their school uniform," he said. "It was clear that what they wore was ripped and dirty."
He added that the boys were so dirty "that each child needed multiple baths and the bath water turned black as soon as the children sat in it. "They were obese – morbidly obese," he added. "They had creases in their skin and had sores in the creases."
The court also heard that the boys, who cannot be identified due to their age, had no oral hygiene.
Mr Verheijen said: "The older boy was diagnosed as suffering with what the dental expert described as severe decay – so severe it required the extraction of 12 teeth."
The youngsters had first come to the attention of Cornwall Council's social care team in 2007 after a referral by their head teacher, who was concerned about the children's uncleanliness, the court heard.
In May 2008 social worker Tracey Stevens visited the home with Detective Constable Julie Nankivell from Devon and Cornwall Police's child abuse investigation unit.
The women found conditions so bad that the mother and her sons were immediately removed to temporary accommodation until a new home could be found for them.
DC Nankivell told the court that the house was crowded – to the extent that only a narrow path was left through the hallway from the front door – and dirty, describing the toilet as horrendous. On the bedroom shared by the mother and one of her sons, she said: "It was filthy and it was untidy. There was bedding on the bed which clearly had not been washed for quite some time."
She added that some of the stains appeared to be dried blood and that used sanitary products littered the floor.
Both DC Nankivell and Mrs Stevens gave evidence in court that the boys' poor oral health was in evidence at this stage.
The detective said: "One of them, when he was talking to me and smiling, did not have any teeth.
"He had what appeared to be stumps in his mouth. His teeth were all rotten."
Barrie van den Berg, for the defence, asked her: "By the time you were there, there was the mother, two small children, her mother who it was fair to say did not look in the best of health her father and another?"
DC Nankivell agreed and said that she never met the boys' father.
Mr Verheijen told the court that it was at this time the boys were put on the child protection register, but a year later the children were removed – a decision criticised by their head teacher.
Mr Verheijen asked the head teacher: "The children were taken off the register in March 2009. What were your feelings about the decision to remove them?"
The head teacher replied from the witness box: "I thought it was the wrong decision ... because I felt that while the mother responded to the support she was being given, there was still a great deal of work needed to further support her and make sure the children were safe.
"I was against the removal from the register because I did not feel that the mother had been given enough support for enough time to maintain the improvements."
Three years after they first came to the attention of social services, in June 2010, the boys were finally put into emergency foster care because their mother had become ill.
Mr Verheijen said that after 12 months with their foster carers, the boys' health had improved dramatically.
"The Crown says that when they were in foster care they were not neglected, wilfully or otherwise. They were properly looked after and that is why their general health improved dramatically."
On Tuesday afternoon, the woman admitted wilfully neglecting or exposing her two sons in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or ill-health between April 2009 and June 2010, and her plea was accepted by the Crown.
Judge Christopher Harvey Clark, QC, adjourned the case and the woman was released on conditional bail until sentencing next month.
A Cornwall Council spokeswoman said after the case: "All decisions are taken at multi agency conferences within the parameters of a legal framework that protects the rights of children and parents."