Parents who got drunk instead of feeding their kids avoid prison sentence

The pair, who cannot be named to protect the identity of their children, have "turned their lives around"

When police were called to a home on the outskirts of Coventry they found three children huddled round a portable heater in a room with no light bulbs.

Officers were told that the youngsters, all aged under 10-years-old, hadn’t eaten the fish and chip dinner they had been promised that evening because their parents had got drunk instead.

The parents were arrested and charged with ill-treating or neglecting the youngsters.

And at Warwick Crown Court the pair, who cannot be named to protect the identity of their children, admitted the charge but avoided a prison sentence because they had turned their lives around and stopped drinking.

This week a judge sentenced them to 12-month community orders and wished them luck in getting the children back.