Jailed: Mother who left son, two, alone in a flooded kitchen

Jailed: Mother who left son, two, alone in a flooded kitchen while she spent the weekend partying

By Fiona Barton

Last updated at 6:06 PM on 27th June 2008

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A mother who abandoned her two-year-old son home alone 'like a dog' for a weekend while she went partying was herself locked up for 18 months yesterday.

Kelly Tollerton left the helpless youngster to scavenge for food in bin-liners in a filthy kitchen while she went out with a man almost twice her age.

The terrified youngster was left alone from a Friday until Monday morning when his plight was finally discovered by neighbours at a block of flats in Lincoln.

Yesterday 22-year-old Tollerton showed no emotion as she was jailed and banned from working with children for life.

Jailed: Kelly Tollerton abandoned her two-year-old son home alone for the weekend

Mr Recorder William Harbage, QC, told her: 'It defies belief that anyone could treat a child in that way.

'In my judgement you are not a fit and proper mother.

'Your treatment of your young son was despicable and disgraceful. Your parenting was woefully inadequate.

'Your conduct will give feelings of horror and revulsion to all right minded people.

'I am quite satisfied that you are not a stupid person. You knew how to parent a young child.

'Social services had invested a great deal of time and resources in you. It is a great pity that they saw fit to discontinue their involvement.

'You were too wrapped up in your own world to think about your son. You were more concerned with your own social life than with caring for his needs.

Disgusting: The kitchen in which the toddler was left to rummage around in

Filth: The toddler was left in highly unhygienic conditions

'You were too selfish and too lazy to look after him properly.'

Shocked police found Tollerton's son helplessly penned into a filthy kitchen by a baby gate at her otherwise deserted home in Ingleby Crescent, Lincoln, in November 2006.

He was dirty, half-dressed, sobbing, shaking with cold and surrounded by nappies, broken crockery and water from an overflowing sink.

During the trial, the jury at Lincoln Crown Court heard that the boy, who is now four and has 'emotional and behavioural difficulties', was only discovered, sobbing and shaking with cold, when he managed to turn on a tap and the water seeped into the flat downstairs.

Police, called in by neighbours, arrived to find a horrifying scene.

The first officer to arrive on the scene, PC Gary Hugo, said that when he looked through the letterbox the boy was 'clearly shaking as if he was cold.

Squalor: The disgusting conditions in which the toddler was found

Accused: Emma Barton said Tollerton could 'rot in hell'. Tollerton claimed her ex-friend was meant to be looking after the baby

He added: 'There was no one else in the flat. There were soiled nappies, broken crockery and plastic bags on the kitchen floor. Items of clothing were strewn everywhere. The smell was overpowering, making it very difficult to breathe.'

Tollerton, a mother-of-two and trainee beauty technician, later claimed she had arranged for a babysitter, Emma Barton, to take care of him but the a jury didn't believe her.

Yesterday Miss Barton, 22, who had previously cared for the child at weekends said: "I hate her. I thought she was a friend at the time.

'She deserves to rot in hell. She deserves everything she gets.'

Felicity Gerry, prosecuting, said the boy is now four and living with foster parents but has hearing difficulties and communicates through sign language.

Doctors were not able to tell whether his difficulties where due to the way he had been treated or being autistic.

'He has emotional and behavioural difficulties.' she added.

Miss Gerry, had told a jury an earlier hearing: 'It was a deliberate act of abandonment so that, in her own words,Tollerton could "go out and party".

'She knew what to do but chose not to do it. Young girls like to party. We've all been out on the town enjoying ourselves with our friends.

'But young mothers can't or shouldn't, because they have a responsibility. Once you have a baby you, are responsible for it and have to bring it up.

'She had been taught what to do. She is not stupid. She has been to college. You may think she is lazy and self-centred, but that is no excuse.'

Miss Gerry added: 'The boy was penned in that kitchen, scrabbling about in the rubbish bins, with food left on a plate for him - just like a dog.'

Tollerton denied child cruelty and perverting the course of justice, insisting she never left the boy - who cannot be named - to fend for himself.

But the jury convicted Tollerton of all the charges after hearing sickening details of the squalor in which the youngster was dumped on his own.

Tollerton, who once ran away from home when she was 15, was pregnant with her first child before her 16th birthday - with the father aged 31.

After moving to a private rented flat in a converted mill she began a three-and-a-half-year relationship Mr Hill, who was 36 when she was 18.

She later had a second child before starting a college beauty-care course, which she was still attending when she left her son in November 2006.

Patricia Harding, defending, admitted Tollerton was an inadequate parent.

'She was a young person who had no family support around her or close friends at the time,' she said.

'She is an inadequate rather than a person solely concerned with her well being.'

Sally French, of Lincolnshire Crown Prosection Service, said: 'It is a sad fact of life that there are so many people who are unable to have children.

'But there are people like Kelly Tollerton who are unable to understand the sacrifices that need to made and the joy a child can bring.'

Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board is currently conducting an investigation into social services' decision to end involvement with the family.

Social workers been involved with the youngster when he was admitted to hospital underweight at the age of only two months.

But case workers decided to end their involvement just over a year before he was discovered alone at Tollerton's home with tragic results.