Pictures reveal dead toddler's squalid life

Pictures have emerged to show the squalid, rubbish-strewn conditions in a British flat where a mother murdered her toddler and hid his body for eight months while she pretended he was alive.

Prosecutors in the case of Kimberley Hainey, 37, released the pictures after a jury found her guilty of murdering her son, Declan.

She was also found guilty of failing to report the toddler's death to authorities and hiding the body.

The pictures show rubbish scattered throughout the house and piled high around and inside a child's playpen.

Benches the sink and floors are covered in empty packets, cans, trays of half-eaten food and drink bottles.

In some of the pictures the floor can hardly be seen because of the amount of rubbish.

Declain's body was discovered at the flat on March 30, 2010 when he would have been 23 months old, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported.

Experts say he had been dead in his cot for up to eight months.

Hainey pretended he was being cared for by family members or that he was at nursery, leading people to believe he was still alive.

Strathclyde Police Detective Inspector Maxine Martin said: “Declan Hainey’s murder was a horrible, tragic case.

"You cannot begin to comprehend Declan’s suffering, nor can you begin to understand how a mother could have done this to their innocent, helpless child."