A cruel dad abandoned his three children to eat food from bins in a house covered in vomit and faeces – because he was too busy playing on his XBOX.
Horrified social workers took the kids – aged five, two and 19 months – into care after finding them ”covered in filth” and eating food off the floor.
Shocking photographs taken inside the ”squalid” flat revealed faeces, ash and cigarettes all over the floor and a bucket of ”mouldy vomit” left in the kitchen.
Cambridge Crown Court heard their foul 26-year-old unemployed dad ignored his kids because he was too busy ”playing on Xbox and smoking cannabis”.
When shocked social workers visited earlier this year one of the children was so hungry she was eating a sausage roll found after rifling through a bin.
Judge Anthony Bate sent the layabout druggie to jail for eight months and ordered his partner on an 18-month community order.
He said: ”The five-year-old was found along with your two other children by social workers in conditions which can only be described as squalid.
”You accept you cared for nobody but yourself and played on Xbox and smoked cannabis – you should be ashamed.”
The court heard the dad was father of one of the girls, the other ”was probably his” while the five-year-old boy was not.
Prosecutor Sara Walker said all three children were found by Cambridgeshire County Council social workers on March 11 with dirt ”ingrained” on their skin.
She added: ”They were eating food off the floor which was littered with dried vomit, faecal matter, ash and cigarettes.
”The social workers saw one of them try and take a half-eaten sausage roll out of a bin, but they stopped her.
”The boy said he was scared of the man and showed where he had been slapped.”
The children’s mum, 23, was intimidated by her partner and spent most of her time looking for work, the court heard.
Defence barrister Tarquin McCalla said she had turned her life around since leaving her abusive relationship.
Both of them pleaded guilty to one charge of child neglect.
The three children have been taken into care and are flourishing in a ”loving family environment”, the court was told.
Judge Anthony Bate banned the media from publishing the names of the children and parents at a hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday.
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman praised social workers who found the three children living in squalor.
The spokesman added: ”The flat was in a poor state and the children were very dirty. However, social workers took prompt action and the children are now flourishing.
”We are grateful that the social workers’ vigilance at the time and ongoing work with the family were recognised and praised by the trial judge.”
