Two-year-old boy left 'home alone in flooded council flat' » Housing » 24dash.com

A two-year-old boy who was allegedly left alone in a flooded kitchen so a woman "could go and party" was often found to be filthy, a court heard today.

The toddler was only discovered when water from the flat in Lincoln leaked through the floor to the apartment below and neighbours called police, Lincoln Crown Court (pictured) was told.

Kelly Tollerton, 22, is on trial accused of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice after the boy was found in November 2006.

Today the court heard from health visitor Jocelyn Hetherington Field, who said she had visited the child on a number of occasions over 12 months from September 2004.

She told the court: "On several occasions he had a sore bottom and a sore neck. He presented as a child who was under-weight for his age and had been in hospital.

"He was a quiet baby. He wasn't cleaned often. When I saw him he was quite grubby and had a nappy on. Often the nappy was sodden and had been on for a long time.

"He would sometimes have vomit on him that hadn't been cleaned."

When police found the boy, he was wearing a vest and pants. He was standing in several inches of water, prevented from escaping by a baby gate, the jury heard.

Felicity Gerry, prosecuting, told the court: "He had been penned into the kitchen using a baby gate, making it impossible to get into the rest of the flat.

"That shows some deliberate act of abandonment, some effort to leave him home alone in a room where food and water is."

Police Constable Gary Hugo said that, when he arrived at the scene, the kitchen sink was overflowing on to the floor where the boy was standing barefoot. He was put into warm clothing and handed to social workers, the court heard.

The jury was told that Tollerton was found by police at the home of her boyfriend and claimed that a friend, Emma Barton, had been left to care for the child. But Miss Barton denied this, the jury heard.

Patricia Harding, defending Tollerton, said the council flat where the boy lived did not have basic facilities.

She said: "The decorative state of the flat was poor. There was no bath.

There was no cooker and the carpet was tired. It was an old carpet that was dirty and could do with replacing. It (the flat) wasn't on the ground floor and there was no lift. It also didn't have an external bin."

She added: "The fact was the flat wasn't particularly child-friendly and it hadn't been decorated."

Ms Harding also said the heating was faulty and there was often no hot water.