Plight of girl who died in locked bedroom was known

SOCIAL services knew about the plight of an eight-year-old girl locked in her "revolting and squalid" bedroom for 12 hours each night in the four weeks before she died, a court heard.

Charlotte Avenall, who had severe learning disabilities, was found by her parents hanged in her faeces-covered bedroom after accidentally tying a cord round her neck.

Senior police officers said the room was the filthiest they had ever seen.

The youngster was forced to use a chest of drawers as a toilet as she was locked in her bedroom with no bed linen from 7pm for 12 hours every night, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Yesterday her mother, Susan Moody, 24, and 33-year-old stepfather, Simon Moody, were each jailed for a year after they both admitted to one count of child cruelty.

The court heard that in the four weeks before her death Charlotte's mother claimed to have E coli.

She left responsibility for looking after Charlotte, who had the mental age of a three-year-old, to her husband at their home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

But despite her claims of being ill, she was trying to become a surrogate mother for a family in Manchester in exchange for 10,000. Her attempts were unsuccessful.

Yesterday, it emerged that social services at Nottinghamshire County Council knew Charlotte was vulnerable but they did not know about the extent of the neglect she was suffering. They knew Charlotte was locked in her bedroom at night following claims by her parents she would sleepwalk. But they accepted the Moodys' assertion she was only locked in once they went to bed.