A woman found living in a “squalid” house of flies in Perthshire has been found guilty of child neglect.
Social workers said they nearly threw up as they inspected Jennifer Petrie’s three-storey Victorian home in east Perthshire.
They told Perth Sheriff Court the property was strewn with bin bags, rotten food and human waste.
During a trial, Petrie denied she lived in unsanitary conditions and insisted the social worker witnesses were wrong – although she refused to say they were lying.
After two days of evidence, the 50-year-old was found guilty last week of causing unnecessary suffering or injury to the health of children in her care at the time.
Sheriff William Wood said her defence case was littered with discrepancies.
He told Petrie he did not believe her or the witnesses she had brought in to support her case.
They included “friend of the family” Shaun Fair who was convicted of stalking Petrie in 2015. At his trial, she admitted having an affair with him for several years.
Welfare check
Senior Perth and Kinross Council social worker Wendy Walls, 51, said she and colleague Angela Brown carried out at a “welfare check” at Petrie’s home on the morning of September 7 2022.
They knocked and called out at the front door but there was no immediate response.
While waiting outside, Ms Wall noticed a car parked outside the house was “filled with household rubbish”.
She said: “I was quite taken aback by how many flies were in the car.
“The rubbish must have been in there for some time.”
Petrie answered the door after 15 minutes and said she probably had Covid, so the social workers had to put on PPE before entering the property.
Concern for dogs
Once inside, there was an “overwhelming” musty smell, Ms Walls said.
She told the court there was a full bottle of urine and black bag stuffed with used toilet paper.
Stale and mouldy food was left on the mantlepiece.
Ms Walls said she was also concerned about two dogs in the house, one with no hair on its back end which “looked like it had had fleas for some time.”
She said there was “stagnant” water on the floor of the downstairs bathroom and the bath was filled with discoloured water.
Ms Brown, who described conditions as “squalid,” told the court there appeared to be excrement in the tub.
Overpowering smell in kitchen
Ms Walls said: “In the kitchen, I was really taken aback by the smell… there was lots of fruit flies flying around.
“It was an overpowering smell, I don’t know how to describe it.
“It would have taken some time to get to that point of chaos.”
There were many rotten apples scattered around and piles of dirty dishes.
Ms Walls said as she made her way upstairs, one of the dogs defecated in front of her.
She said she felt “very disappointed with Ms Petrie because she had been given a lot of support, guidance and financial support to help her maintain her home.”
When shown photos of a tidy kitchen, which Petrie claimed were taken 15 minutes after the social workers’ visit, Ms Walls said: “That is not the state of the kitchen I saw that day.”
Ms Brown, 32, said the back garden was “like a dumping ground” with “black bags galore and flies everywhere”.
She said she was “actually nearly sick because of the smell” in the kitchen.
There was a stained mattress in an upstairs bedroom, she said.
‘Shocked’ by unsanitary claims
Petrie, now of Perth, insisted she did not consent to the visit and the social workers “barged” past her.
Ms Walls had said she had “no doubts” they had been allowed to enter the house.
Petrie, who has medical complaints including complex regional pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and brain fog, said her fridge, freezer and downstairs toilet had all broken within days of the social workers’ visit.
She said they did not see hundreds of pounds worth of food in her kitchen, claiming they only checked one of her 36 cupboards.
She denied there were any flies.
But when asked by fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton, Petrie refused to state the social workers were lying, saying instead: “I don’t know why they said that.”
She added: “I was shocked because what they are saying is not indicative about the condition of my house.”
Sheriff’s disbelief
Tenant Mr Fair, 65, said social workers were “lying” to the court.
His claims he heard Ms Walls and Ms Brown force their way into the house, while he was across the street, were rejected by the sheriff.
Sheriff Wood told Petrie: “I didn’t believe any of your witnesses, or you for that matter, in relation to the true condition of the property.”
The sheriff deferred sentence for background reports.
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