A woman was jailed today for leaving her 6 year old child at home alone for five days. The story behind this case is just so tragic, it breaks my heart.
Natalie Terry, was a victim of a domestic violence, debt ridden, facing eviction and needed money to get herself out of trouble. This doesn’t excuse her for abandoning her daughter whilst she worked to earn herself some money to pay the rent, but the tragedy in this is that she felt she had no one to turn to for help.
The poor little girl spent 5 days cold, alone, hungry and extremely frightened. She finally knocked on her neighbours door asking for help. I have two young daughters and cannot imagine leaving them alone in the house for 5 minutes let alone five days and can only imagine that you must be in a very low place to be able to do this.
I heard a victims support agency spokesperson today talk of the increase of women in similar positions in the current climate. It is frightening that women are so desperate and desolate but thankfully not all will leave their children to fend for themselves. Nevertheless, this case highlights that help is needed for them urgently.
Bunty
