Six year old left 'Home Alone with Monster Munch & Flat Screen TV'

A LITTLE girl had to live on Monster Munch and water after being left home alone by her wicked mother for FIVE DAYS.

Scared six-year-old Shekinha Terry was abandoned in a freezing, scruffy council house covered in cat mess.

When her heartless mum Natalie was challenged by cops, she told them: "I neglected my daughter — end of."

A court heard how Shekinha got up on a cold November morning to find Terry, 28, was not there.

The bewildered child waited for a while but then took off her school uniform and switched on the TV.

Throughout her ordeal she ate pickled onion flavour Monster Munch, said by food experts to have no nutritional value, and yoghurt. And she drank just water.

Finally, shaking and sobbing hysterically, she knocked on a neighbour's door and told her: "Mum has left me for five days and she has not come back."
Terry's shocking callousness was revealed at Maidstone Crown Court as she was jailed for 18 months for child cruelty.

Shekinha was said to have suffered "fear and distress" after being left in the house in Dartford, Kent, which had no carpets and was sparsely furnished. The filthy kitchen contained little food and a kitten had messed in every room.

When Terry finally returned, she asked a neighbour if she had seen her daughter. Told Shekinha was with police, the mother declared: "I will not get her back."

The court heard no explanation of Terry's whereabouts during her five-day disappearance beyond her telling police she worked nights in a shop. She said: "I am doing everything I can to earn money and keep my job."

She added there had been other occasions when she left Shekinha alone for short periods, but there is no suggestion the child was locked in. The case has only just been heard even though Shekinha — now eight and living with her gran — was abandoned in November 2010.

Judge Martin Joy was told of worries the girl would feel responsible if her mother was jailed. But he said the crime was so serious a non-custodial sentence could not be justified.

He added: "She was living in utterly insanitary conditions. She was in fear and distress for a considerable time."

Trevor Wright, defending, said Terry had genuine regret for the harm she caused her daughter.

He told how the mum had spent eight months in a domestic violence refuge, was broke when she moved into the house and had rent arrears.

Mr Wright said: "She became so overwhelmed with this problem she found it difficult to provide even the essentials. She just withdrew and shut down. She couldn't explain it. She needs help."

Last night an upset neighbour living opposite the Dartford house said: "I feel terrible now. If I had known the woman had done such a wicked thing I would obviously have done something about it."

Sun Newspaper article