House of horrors: Mother jailed for locking young boys inside cold, filthy house as she partied
A young mother is serving her first night behind bars for enjoying nights out while her sons were left alone, cold and hungry, locked in a filthy house.
Neighbours called police after seeing a naked and dirty toddler screaming and banging his head against a bedroom window.
Inside the house of horrors, the pantry is a dirty floor covered in rubbish and rotting food.
It's where brothers aged 2 and 4 looked for meals.
"They'd eat off the floor, the bin," Judge Anthony Moynihan said.
"They'd try to eat dog food."
The rest of the house was just as bad.
Beds were wet with urine and faeces.
The children didn't have bedding or clean clothes, while their mother slept with a doona.
Brisbane Supreme Court heard neighbours called police in early 2014.
It was the second time the mother had been out all night.
They saw her youngest son naked banging his head on a bedroom window, screaming.
Police say there was an "overpowering stench of urine and faeces." and "soiled nappies throughout the house" that made police officers gag.
"What you did to them... was cruel," Judge Moynihan told the 22-year-old before sentencing her to one year in jail.
She was visibly upset in court, as well as deeply ashamed and humiliated.
She suffered a panic attack outside the courtroom on Tuesday and although she now suffers depression, there's no medical evidence she was unwell at the time she neglected her children.
The children are now living with their grandmother.
Child safety officers are considering returning the boys to their mother after she serves four months behind bars.
News break – March 29
