Woman neglects two children for affair with convicted sex offender

A woman named Debbie Clelland, aged 45, was found guilty of neglecting two children aged 11 and 15 whom she was supposed to care for. She abandoned the boys in a freezing house, leaving them starving with no food and insufficient heating as the electricity meter was nearly out of credit. The children posted online pleas for help after she left them for trysts with Robin Schreiber, a convicted sex offender. On one occasion, they were found shivering in a cold house with no money to pay for the electricity or buy food. Their father, whose identity is protected, discovered the children in a dire state—wrapped in jackets and scarves in a house with limited food, only able to eat cereal and leftover fast-food. The court heard that Clelland previously left the children with limited food for over a day and then again on a cold day when temperatures dropped as low as -7°C. She admitted to a neglect charge, and during sentencing, Sheriff John MacRitchie described her actions as 'stomach-churning' and 'gut-wrenching', highlighting her neglect and lack of concern for the children’s wellbeing. The sheriff imposed a 40-week curfew as punishment. Robin Schreiber, aged 46, a sex offender banned from contact with anyone under 16, was jailed for four years in 2010 for supplying date-rape drugs to friends including teenage girls and had previously been involved in lewd behavior involving an 18-month-old boy. The case received condemnation from local officials, emphasizing that neglecting children to pursue a relationship with a sex offender is utterly unacceptable.