Britain's 'worst mum' escapes jail

London, Nov 17 (ANI): A Brit mother of four is said to have escaped prosecution after she left her young children at home alone to go on a 24-hour drink and drug binge.

Rebecca Stevenson, 22, who is a single mom of two sons and two daughters, aged three months to four years, walked free with just a suspended sentence.

The terrified tots were left to fend for themselves when Stevenson, from Blackburn, Lancs, went missing after drinking a bottle of wine and snorting cocaine with friends.

And the alarm was only raised when her eldest daughter was spotted hanging out of a window sobbing, "Where's mummy?"

When Stevenson's stepdad, Paul Fielding, broke into the house he found a one-year-old soaked in urine in his cot and the three-month-old covered in sick.

When brought before the judge at Preston crown court, Stevenson admitted to four charges of child neglect.

Judge Norman Wright branded her behaviour an "appalling and complete dereliction". But he let her off with a 20-week sentence suspended for two years.

She was also given a two-month curfew keeping her at home from 8pm to 6am.

"The children were left because you decided to go out for your own gratification, drinking and taking drugs," the Mirror quoted Judge Wright as saying.

He added that it was "merciful luck" that they were not seriously injured.

The court heard how Stevenson was brooding about her boyfriend cheating on her when she abandoned the children in July. She put them to bed and didn't return until 10.30pm the next day.

They are now in the care of their grandparents and Stevenson is only allowed supervised access. Richard Bennett, defending, said she had left them "in a moment of madness".

"The message should be that the safety and welfare of children must come first - and anyone who puts them at grave risk could face a custodial sentence," Claude Knights, of charity Kidscape stated. (ANI)