4-y-o left to care for herself

It was a tear-jerking moment in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Thursday when a 27-year-old woman confessed to leaving her four-year-old daughter alone at home while she went to work at nights.

The mother was brought before the court to answer charges of child neglect, after police entered her house and found the toddler alone. The court heard that police were conducting an operation in the Corporate Area community, when they noticed the home was padlocked. The police gained entry to the property and found the toddler locked inside. The woman, who is a forklift operator, pleaded guilty to the charge.

She admitted that she had locked her young child inside the house to shield her from potential harm while she was away. The woman explained to the court that she lacked trust in anyone to care for her child

"Because me fada kinda sick, me can't really keep her round him because anybody can touch her," the mother said.

"My family dem, dem a one next saga because fi dem son a do the same thing, so cause a dat, me nuh want nobody fi keep her," the woman added, her voice trembling.

Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque told the woman that while her situation may be rough, her approach to dealing with the problem was wrong.

"You can't lock her up just so. When you realise that you don't have that sort of family support, you, maybe, have to go to other places. This is tough on you, but Ma'am, you just have to use your head and go around it. You ever hear them say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade with it? A nuff lemonade me a make yuh know," the judge said.

Meanwhile, the woman explained that since the incident, she has since moved from night duties to stay with her child and is making efforts to relocate from the community. She was moved to tears when the police investigator expressed that "if she did even phone station and beg me, me woulda watch the baby for her".

Having listened to the matter, Cole-Montaque placed the woman on probation for a year and ordered that she gets parental counselling from the probation department.

"I won't send you to prison. I've taken into account what you have said," the judge said.