A couple who allowed their three year-old daughter to die in a house "not fit" to live in were jailed today, in a case that shocked local authorities in Britain.
Tiffany Wright died of malnutrition in a bedroom littered with dirty nappies and clothes which also had dog excrement smeared over the walls, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
The little girl's decomposing body was found upstairs in the Scarbrough Arms pub in Upperthorpe, Sheffield, on September 30th last year, the court heard.
She was found two days after she had died in the pub that was owned by her parents, prosecutors said, after becoming so weak she contracted pneumonia.
Police said they were shocked that no one reported the incident, as they revealed an investigation had been launched into the circumstances surrounding her tragic death.
Officers have said how members of the public would see Tiffany staring out of her bedroom window.
As Tiffany lived in squalor, people were partying downstairs and even having karaoke competitions, the court was told.
A post-mortem had revealed the young girl had not been fed or had a drink for more than 20 hours.
Today her mother Sabrina Hirst (22), was jailed for 12 years after she had admitted manslaughter at an earlier hearing.
Her husband, Robert Hirst (44), was also jailed for five years after pleading guilty to child cruelty.
"It is a very, very sad case and you only have to think about (her) last few days... (where she) sat alone, unloved, uncared for in the bedroom when the most natural thing in the world for her to want and need is a mother's love," acting detective chief inspector Dave Powell told reporters outside court. "She didn't get that love and that is tragic."
He said the house was "not fit" to live in.
"People downstairs were having parties and karaoke downstairs enjoying themselves while the poor little girl was living in agony," he said.
"I don't think any sentence in these circumstances will be long enough. As a parent myself I would have liked to have seen a much more lengthy and appropriate prison sentence."
The couple had also admitted child cruelty in relation to a one-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons.