August 2015 Shocking pictures show horrendous conditions 5 children had to endure at their squalid home The drug addict parents of five young children who were left living in squalor in an insect-ridden home where the floors were covered with urine and excrement have each been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Scott Higgins, 42, and Lisa Doxey, 39, left their children without any food or toilet paper for long periods of time so they could indulge their drugs and drink habits. When they went to bed at night, the four girls and one boy did so on empty stomachs and on mattresses ‘crawling with lice’. The floor of their ‘uninhabitable’ Grimsby home was also covered in urine and excrement, a court heard. The bath had mould growing on it and had barely been used, while the fridge lay empty, with the smell of human waste overpowering throughout the property. Higgins and Doxey, both of the Lincolnshire town, each admitted five offences of child cruelty dated between September 2011 and April last year. The five children – girls now aged 15, 12, six and two, and a boy aged four – were all Doxey’s, with Higgens the father of the three youngest. Prosecutor Andrew Bailey told Grimsby Crown Court that police went to the couple’s home on April 21 last year after a tip-off. Higgins was pushing a buggy containing two of the children but he was drunk and the buggy hit an ice cream van, causing the boy to hit and injure his head on the van, making him cry. The couple’s home was filthy and the youngest girl had ‘horrendous’ nappy rash, the court heard. Her bottom was ‘bright red’ and her thigh area was ‘red raw’ and looked painful. There was a large empty vodka bottle on the floor. There was no food at all in a fridge and it was filled with mould. There were dirty pots in the sink. The bath, sink and toilet were covered in a brown substance, with flies festering across the rooms – especially around a urine soaked mattress and excrement covered bathroom. A dog also lived in the house. The living conditions were described as ‘uninhabitable’ and there was a syringe, without a needle, lying with what appeared to be dirty blood in it. ‘There was no food anywhere in the house,’ said Mr Bailey. ‘The stairs did not have a carpet on them. ‘The bath was covered in mould and had not been used for a while.’ The condition affected the health of the five children, all of whom suffered from head lice and bed bugs. The eldest were shoplifting to steal basic items for their siblings, while one of them did not eat her school lunch so that she could take it home to feed her sisters and brother. They are now ‘doing well’ living in foster homes, the court heard. Richard Butters, mitigating, said Higgins ‘got his priorities completely wrong, spending all of his money on drink and drugs’. He added: ‘The house was in a thoroughly disgusting state and was not habitable, even for an animal, and the children were neglected and, more importantly, exposed to significant harm because of those conditions. ‘At least the children are now well, physically. There was no intention on his part to harm these children. ‘It’s simply the state that he was in that caused him to be utterly useless and incapable.’ Simon Hirst, representing Doxey, said the mother accepted that she deserved prison. ‘She is very remorseful,’ said Mr Hirst. ‘She is relieved things came to an end. ‘The harm to these children was of an emotional type rather than a physical type. ‘Physically, these children are all described as very well apart from the nappy rash.’ Judge David Tremberg described the house of horrors as being ‘filthy and squalid’ and said the parents were ‘indifferent’ to their children’s needs. He told the pair: ‘You created five victims. You were responsible for serious, multi-faceted, wholesale neglect of your children over that extended period of time. ‘You appear to regard yourselves as victims. Your treatment of those children is an insult to decent, low-income families. ‘It’s clear that both of you sought to prioritise over a protracted period of time your own needs, to fund your drink and drug habits and left yourselves completely incapable of dealing with these children’s needs and indifferent to the basic standards of childcare. ‘There was a lack of basic care. The children’s beds were crawling with lice. They did not go to school enough, they did not get taken for medical treatment and appointments. ‘You were indifferent to their most basic needs in a most comprehensive way.’ After the case, Detective Constable Emma Stevens said: ‘It was a horrendous case of neglect. Fortunately, the children are now out of that environment and are since moving on with their lives, no thanks to the parents. ‘The sentence shows the severity of what they have done, although who knows what long-term effects those children are going to have.’