Tiffany Wright

Tiffany Wright aged 3 starved to death by her mother and stepfather. This little girl deserves to be remembered, her story must be told.

A three-year-old girl as fragile as a 'tiny porcelain doll' died in squalour after being starved and neglected by her cruel mother and stepfather, a court was told.

Tiffany Wright was 'unloved, unwanted and left to die alone' in her bedroom above a pub run by the parents.

The sad little girl would be seen by passers-by staring out of the first floor window. She was stopped from going to nursery and kept away from other children of her age, yet tragically no one intervened to save her.


The Scarbrough Arms pub where the body of 3-year-old Tiffany Wright was found

It is difficult to imagine a more horrific 'natural' death. Weakened by lack of food and water, Tiffany died from pneumonia.

Paramedics found her lying in a filthy bed in a beetle-infested room at the Scarbrough Arms on Addy Street, Sheffield. The youngster had been dead for up to two days. She was shockingly underweight and her body covered in insect bites.

Her mother Sabrina Hirst, 22, and stepfather Robert Hirst, 54, were originally charged with murder. But the Crown Prosecution Service accepted Sabrina's guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of 'gross negligence' and her partner's plea to a lesser charge of neglect.


Tiffany's stepfather Robert Hirst, 54, has been found guilty of neglect
The couple have also pleaded guilty to the neglect of a 12-month-old child.

Both were remanded in custody on Wednesday by Judge Alan Goldsack, QC, who adjourned the case at Sheffield Crown Court for reports.

The court was told Tiffany's death was a result of repeated and severe malnourishment. A post mortem examination found development of her bones had been abnormal, indicating malnourishment and growth happening in bursts when she had been fed.


The pathologist also discovered the organ responsible for her immune system was 'much smaller' than it should have been.

Seven months before she died Tiffany was seen by a health visitor and 'appeared healthy and well.'

It is not known whether the family were involved with social services, but a multi-agency investigation has been launched into her death.

Detectives believe the little girl had been loved as a baby and toddler, but when Robert Hirst came into her life things were to dramatically change.

Not only was she starved of love and attention, but they failed to give her the most basic level of care by denying her food and water.

Experienced police officers have been left shocked by the tragic case.

Outside court Detective Inspector Steve Williams, said: 'We think this neglect had been going on for months and that those last few months, weeks and days of her life she was unloved, unwanted, starved of attention and left alone to die and she would have known that.

'Children are a gift who should be cherished. Parents everywhere, those who have lost them and people unable to have them will find this treatment unbearable and unthinkable.

'She was like a tiny porcelain doll, so tiny and frail and we all wondered how this had been allowed to happen in this day and age.'

He added: 'This must never happen again and if people have any concerns at all or suspicions about the welfare of a child they must call somebody because out of every thousand calls followed up if only one turns out to be founded and a child's life is saved it is worth it.'

The Hirsts were licensees of the Scarbrough Arms in Sheffield. The court heard for over 13 months before Tiffany's death, they were 'in a habit of leaving children locked up in residential quarters upstairs.'

When the girl died last September police found the house in a squalid condition, with live electrical wires hanging from the walls and one room where the family dogs were kept was full of excrement and urine.

The court heard the decision to accept the mother's manslaughter plea had been made because it could not be proved she knew her actions would have killed Tiffany. While Robert Hirst escaped with a neglect charge because he started a new job, assisting a lorry driver, a week before her death and was away 12 or 13 hours a day.

The judge said he had breached his duty of care to check on Tiffany, while Sabrina had never been able to answer a single question as to how this child could die in her care.

Alan Jones, Chairman of the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, said he was 'immensely saddened' by the tragedy and a serious case review was being carried out.


He said the inquiry would 'look at the involvement that agencies had with this family and to make sure any necessary changes are made so that children in Sheffield are no longer put at risk in this way.'


TODAY 27TH JUNE 2008
SABRINA HIRST RECEIVED 12 YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR MANSLAUGHTER
ROBERT HIRST RECEIVED 5 YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOR CHILD CRUELTY.

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