A Perthshire grandmother is facing a prison sentence after admitting subjecting her granddaughter to a catalogue of neglect spanning more than five years.
Police were eventually called in after school staff became concerned about the youngster, who was filthy and smelled of smoke and urine in class.
On Wednesday, a court heard how the child had head lice and could not see properly as she was not given the glasses she required.
She only had a 57.4% attendance record at her school over seven months.
The woman pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful neglect of her granddaughter in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health at addresses in Perth and elsewhere in Perthshire between January 1 2006 and May 9 2011, by failing to seek adequate medical, eye and dental care, failing to ensure standards of hygiene were maintained, leaving her regularly smelling of urine and smoke and being infested with head lice.
She also admitted failing to provide the child with clean clothing and failing to ensure she attended school on a satisfactory basis.
Depute fiscal Carol Whyte told the court the child was ”unkempt” and had head lice every ”few months.”
”The girl’s clothes smelt of urine and smoke and were commented on by other pupils,” she continued. ”During a school medical examination, it was found that the child had vision difficulties and the grandmother had missed various appointments.”
The court heard the child only had a 57.4% school attendance record from August 18 2010 to March 1 2011, and was absent for 92 days, 62 of these being unexplained.
Solicitor Steve Lafferty said his client was her granddaughter’s official carer but had herself suffered from agoraphobia.
”My client endeavoured to get rid of the head lice,” he said. ”It is a serious case but my client had health problems. The result is her granddaughter is not in her care now and never will be.”
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he was considering a custodial sentence for the grandmother and said the ”bottom line” was that she had ”not accepted responsibility” for the offences.
”There was no acceptance on her part that, over the course of five years, she has effectively neglected her granddaughter none at all,” he said.
”This is against a background where we see many headlines where a child has died due to neglect caused by someone supposedly caring for him or her.
”If these cases are not found, then we may have another wee child who loses their life.”
He deferred sentence until August 15 to allow for a medical report.