Pictured: 'Squalid drugs den' where heroin was found next to children's ... trends now
Pictures showing the 'squalid drugs den' where heroin was found next to children's lunchboxes have been revealed - as a mother and her friend were convicted of failing to look after the youngsters.
Officers gained entry into the house in Swansea, south Wales, to check upon the children's welfare after arresting the woman for drug dealing.
Inside the home, they found the children asleep in bed while a friend of their mother was lying in the living room, having smoked heroin.
The mother later insisted in her interview with police that her children were well-fed and cared for, attended school regularly, and that they knew 'not to touch mummy's stuff'.
But at Swansea Crown Court, Judge Paul Hobson told the female defendant she and her children had lived in a 'drugs den' as he sentenced her to nine months in jail for child neglect, to serve alongside her current prison term for drug dealing.
The house was described as in a 'squalid' state, with a stash of heroin found not far from the children's lunchboxes
The male defendant was handed a two-year community order with a rehabilitation requirement. Neither of the pair can be named, in order to protect the identity of the children.
Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, told the court that the woman was arrested by police in the city last summer on suspicion of being involved in drug dealing.
A search revealed she was carrying 141g of heroin. The court heard that after hearing the defendant's worried remarks about her children, officers decided to attend her home address.
Once there, they found a man asleep in the living room with a piece of foil in one hand and a lighter in the other. When he was roused, he said the woman had asked him to look after her children and after feeding them and putting them to bed, he had smoked heroin which he had taken to the address.
The two children were asleep in bed upstairs. The court heard the house was poorly kept and a search of the property found a stash of heroin next to the children's lunchboxes in the kitchen.
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