Mother in court charged with murdering two-year-old girl

A mother has appeared in court charged with neglecting and murdering her two-year-old girl.

Glasgow Sheriff Court. Picture: John Devlin

It is alleged that Margaret Wade, 36, and partner Marie Sweeney, 35, killed Lauren Wade between July 2014 and March 2015.

Prosecutors say the pair “wilfully ill-treated and neglected” and “assaulted” Lauren, as well as causing her to take drugs.

It is claimed they had kept her in a filthy house in Glasgow’s Sighthill area with insects and dirty nappies.

They are also accused of wilfully neglecting two other children, then 10 and seven.

Wade and Sweeney, from Townhead, Glasgow, appeared in private at the city’s sheriff court, where they made no plea.

They were both granted bail and are expected to appear at the High Court at a later date.

Papers from the court claim that they did “fail to provide her with adequate nourishment and fluids” and “fail to bathe her”.

They are charged with “by means to the prosecutor unknown, cause her to ingest diazepam”.

Both women allegedly allowed the house to become dirty and “infested with insects”, with bags of rubbish with rotting waste and dirty nappies.

Wade and Sweeney are further accused of “failing to seek to provide medical air and care” for Lauren, causing her unnecessary suffering and murdering her.