General Chat

A mother has been charged with neglect after she allegedly left her three young children locked in a car in extreme heat for 45 minutes.

The youngsters aged between two and eight were said to have been left in Carlisle city centre amid temperatures of 40 degrees centigrade inside the vehicle.

Police said members of the public were alerted to the situation when the children sounded the horn while it was parked in Chapel Street at about midday on Monday.

It is thought the mother, who has not been named by Cumbria Constabulary, had gone to visit a store.

Police removed the children from the vehicle and arrested the woman when she returned.

The children did not require hospital treatment but were left in a traumatised state after being removed from the car, a police spokesman said.

The local woman aged in her 20s will appear before Carlisle magistrates on Monday, July 11 accused of three counts of neglect.

Extreme heat aside....it's highly irresponsible to leave children of that age alone for ANY length of time !

My views on this sort of thing are well known as a result of the McCann case so I shall say no more ! x

Not sure I understand this one - leaving aside the fact that the children should in no way have been left in the car both from the point of view of the heat and child safety - if one of them could sound the horn couldn't they open a door or wind down a window as even central locking can be overridden from the inside?

I am not supporting the mother (no way) but if the children are old enough to do domething about it (i.e. sound the horn) and were not imprisoned in the car could they not have opened the door?

Whilst I realise that the police dogs in the recent case could do nothing at all about it, children sounding a horn sound as if they might.

Forgive me if I am wrong, as I have not read this actual case, but this might be a case of the media jumping on the trail of another recent news story.

Please note - I do wholehearedly agree that they should in no way have been left in the car alone in the heat but am not sure they could nothing about it.

unless its a police dog!

LOL Kemp. The woman is in her early 20's, so maybe the kids are just young.

Article (see initial post) says between 2 and 8, I would have thought the 8 year old may have been able to take some preventive action (as well as sounding the horn) but, as I say, I am not condoning the mother, just puzzled by the facts of the story.

The children are 2 and eight

I know the mum did wrong but these are the things that worry me

the Police can kill animals and dont get done!
WHEN is it ok to leave children in a car?

I know I,m mad but no one can give a good enough answer to that question all I get is ...well it depends on the child! well some children of 8 are taking on far more responsibility that sittin in a car ...The mum is wrong to have done it totally!

The onus of responsiblity isn't on the children to get themselves out of the dangerous situation Barbara...it's with the mother for leaving them unattended in the first place !

I didn't say it was the child's responsibility to get out of the car and I have said all along that I in no way condone the actions of the mother, it's just that, in some ways, this just doesn't seem to stack up somehow.

I've never been inside a car when the doors are locked from outside, the keys are not in the ignition and the engine is off. Does the central locking still work? Were there child locks? Will the windows still open?

A mother leaves her children in a car in the heat (double whammy), I'm trying hard to see what actually doesn't add up? :-)

Did the children actually sound the hown to alert passersby or were passersby alerted to the fact that children were in the car by them playing on the horn? Hard to tell from how this article is written.

Sorry, used to work for the media and therefore aware of how things can be reported (and twisted if need be)

I am really not trying to argue anything here at all - just trying to make sense of it that's all.

To me it doesn't matter. Most likely it was that they were playing with the horn, (I remember sitting on my dad's knee in the driving seat and him letting me toot the horn when I was really small, children don't forget that), but whether they did it to alert someone (unlikely IMO) or were playing THAT is undoubtedly what saved them from a fate far worse than a bit of trauma that they did suffer.

Hi Teresa

Just been reading a post of yours on the News of the World Thread and see you used to work for a newspaper too - I was in advertising but, as it was a series of weekly local rags, got involved in the news dept too.

It was perhaps this that sparked my thoughts as to what was the real story behind this.

There are some people who are just criminally stupid... when I worked for a well known toy shop a woman left her two children under 7 in the play area ( unknown to us as the shop was busy) she went approx 1/4 mile away to the mall, came back quarter of an hour after closing time by which time we had called police...she tapped on the window and beckoned the children out before noticing the police waiting for her!

The previous manager had the same thing happen , except that the children went outside un-noticed and were seen by their grandparent who just happened to be on a passing bus!

Leaving a child in the care of an older one in a car if you are literally popping in and out of a shop is understandable ...but 45 minutes?! The weather we have had would particularly make you think twice surely,even if normal commonsense didn't dictate it... I do really think some people have a screw loose.

I'm just the same Barbara, in fact I had a little debate up about responsible journalism a few days ago, though nobody had any particular views about it apart from me and Hayley. I always look a little deeper into a reported event as I also know these are often worded to cause the most outrage, and that is done by not presenting all the facts, such as the proposed route for our repatriated servicemen, and the way it was presented in the Mail.

Yes I was in the advertising department too, loved it, and we all cross-sold to all our publications, so I have no doubt whatsoever that that is what happens at those offices too.

Hi Teresa, missed the thread you mention - will have a look for it.

I just thought 8 year old in car, not completely helpless (although I strongly agree that he/she shouldn't have been left there) - playing with car horn (not in any way distressed). Mother shouldn't have left them at all (wholeheartedly agreed) but would perhaps not have made any news at all except for the fact that it followed in the heels of two cases of police dogs in cars and yes, it comes to something when dogs seem to make the news more than children.

*The Children did not require hospital treatment but were left in a traumatised state after being removed from the car* a police spokesman said.

So he wasn't *not in any way distressed*.

Quite the contrary.

x

Sadly there are lots of child protection issuse everyday and many never come to light. weather this story is in the paper because of what happened to the poor dogs left in a car i dont know. its good to see action was taken against the parent if nothing else this lady needs some parenting skills.

We all make mistakes as parents but there comes a point when the law must intervene.

Rob

Doors now are child proof in that they can only be open from the outside,,,,,,once the ignition is off electric windows can not be wound down,,,,!! also the edlest was under the legal age to be left alone in charge of other minors,,,,,,yes of course she neglected her children in health and safety.......it only take a small child 20 mins to dies of heat left in a airless situation......hope she get a good kick up the rear,,,,,

Robin7 I know of far worse cases of abuse which have been allowed to go .......

I reported one but it got nowhere ...and to this very day still this child is being abused and thats 10 years