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

[dutchman]

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.