Mother Obsessed With Computer Games

[Borderpower]

Mother obsessed with computer games left her dogs to starve to death

A mother neglected her three children and let her dogs starve to death because she was so obsessed with a computer game.

The 33-year-old woman played the Small World game almost non-stop on the internet for months while her children were reduced to eating cold baked beans straight from the tin with their fingers.

Her home became filthy, with rubbish strewn over the floor and the bodies of her two dogs, a German shepherd and a lurcher, left for two months in the dining room it was revealed.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been given a suspended jail sentence and banned from using the internet by a judge in Kent.

The horror only came to an end when a neighbour peered through the letterbox and alerted the authorities, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

The woman's children, aged nine, ten and 13, were badly neglected for six months, said Deepak Kapur, prosecuting.

When officers arrived at the house in Swanley, Kent, in February the woman told them it was 'in a bit of a mess' They then saw rubbish all over the floors in all of the rooms.

The woman tried to block officers from entering the dining room and when asked why she replied: 'All right, my dogs are in there. They are dead. I killed them. 'I probably starved them, probably because I have been playing the computer game all the time.'

She received an invitation from a friend on [system edit: Contains pet groups] to play Small World and had very quickly become hooked.

The game featuring characters such a wizards, dwarves, orcs and giants is played like a traditional board game but online.

'She started playing initially for an hour aday in late 2009 but since August of that year it had become an obsession to the point where she was only getting two hours' sleep a night,' said the prosecutor.

'She still managed to feed the children and get them to school but accepted she let everything else go.

'Afterwards, it became so overwhelming she didn't know where to start.

'It got to the stage where she only bought food that didn't need cooking.

' Allan Compton, defending, said the woman had been a devoted and competent mother until tragedy struck some years ago with the death of her husband from a heart attack.

'She retreated into this virtual world provided by her laptop computer,' he said.

'She shut herself off from the outside world.' Mr Compton said the house was now habitable.

The children had been taken into care, but she hoped to be reunited with them in the future, he said.

The mother was sentenced to six months' imprisonment suspended for two years, and ordered to do 75 hours' unpaid work.

She was banned from keeping animals. She had admitted three charges of child cruelty and two of animal neglect. Judge

Jeremy Carey told her: 'Your life went very badly wrong.

Your children were badly neglected indeed. There was decay and filth all around.' Judge Carey banned the woman from access to the internet 'to assist you to resist the temptation to return to this virtual world'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13...tarve-death.htm

I dont understand why the kids did not feed the dogs, I mean the oldest is 13

Poor dogs and kids

[iggy mum]

OMFG!! Pretty light penalty methinks.....

[tlc]

OMFG!! Pretty light penalty methinks.....

I agree, that's discusting, those poor kids and poor doggies what a horrible way to die.

[Snoopy21]

That is just sad. That woman must have had a pretty serious mental health issue to behave like that. It's a tragedy that her children and pets suffered because she couldn't get help.

[Animal House]

That is just sick.

No excuse to neglect your children and animals.

I don't understand why the children didn't speak up at school or tell someone?

[Loving my Oldies]

That is just sad. That woman must have had a pretty serious mental health issue to behave like that. It's a tragedy that her children and pets suffered because she couldn't get help.

All she needed to do was to pick up a phone. Change "couldn't" to "wouldn't"

[Little Gifts]

Having worked in statutory child protection for a long time I hate to say it but neglect of children (and animals and households) happens all the time even without mental health issues or computer addiction. Kids can still be attending school and neighbours don't have a clue what is going on behind closed doors. Unfortunately stuff like this has to go on for a while before someone notices something is wrong. Things have to deteriorate to the point where it all falls apart before anyone external realises how bad things are.

Some people who have previously coped normally do get overwhelmed after a tragedy and end up not being able to manage things they previously could. It is very sad but not generally intentional. Then of course there are others with significant mental health issues who may never be able to cope. And then there are others who simply don't give a shit. I wish at least 2 of those groups would stop having babies.

[Maddy]

That is just sad. That woman must have had a pretty serious mental health issue to behave like that. It's a tragedy that her children and pets suffered because she couldn't get help.

All she needed to do was to pick up a phone. Change "couldn't" to "wouldn't"

Before jumping in to vilify people, I think it's only fair to at least take the time to really understand what has happened.

Addiction related to gaming is no different from any other addiction- if this woman was suffering from a more familiar condition (drug addiction, compulsive hoarding, etc) I'm sure people wouldn't be jumping in and assuming that she was completely aware and in control of her situation (and most importantly, I don't think people would be blaming her in quite the same way).

I know someone who's addicted to WoW and while some people don't (or can't) believe it's a serious issue, I've watched someone almost literally stop existing in the real world; neglecting his home until it was almost falling down around his ears, neglecting his job until his employment there was terminated, neglecting his personal relationships until he had no one to help or support him and neglecting his own health until he was almost dead.

This story is terrible but hopefully it will highlight exactly how widespread the problem is- it's no longer just Koreans dying after 100+ hour WoW benders in internet cafes.

[Dame Aussie]

I don't care how sick she was, that's disgusting.

[Crisovar]

That is just sad. That woman must have had a pretty serious mental health issue to behave like that. It's a tragedy that her children and pets suffered because she couldn't get help.

All she needed to do was to pick up a phone. Change "couldn't" to "wouldn't"

Some people react to a tragedy in their lives in ways that we cannot comprehend, it is easy to stand on the outside and judge what we do not understand.

[k9angel]

Geez that's sad.

Poor kids and poor doggies.

[Jed]

How tragic, the poor woman was escaping from severe difficulties in her life because she couldn't cope, and in so doing, caused more tragedy.

So sad.

When we all lived in villages, someone would have noticed that she wasn't travelling so well, and would have called in, but today,no one has time, and the cities are too large and impersonal.

[Maddy]

I don't care how sick she was, that's disgusting.

So mental illness now makes someone unworthy of understanding or perhaps even a little bit of compassion?

It's great to see that all the money being spent on educating the public about mental health issues is having such a profound effect

[Little Gifts]

Hardy's Angel some people haven't been touched by mental health issues or addictions or depression so I don't think they understand that these are not issues where someone can simply fix themselves. It is hard to have compassion for something you don't understand. It is 'sick', it is 'disgusting', but it is also a tragedy, and not even an avoidable one because lots of people who are mentally unwell don't even know they are so can't ask for help.

Try not to take other's comments to heart - they obviously don't have the knowledge or experiences you do.

Big hugs

XXX

[Snoopy21]

All she needed to do was to pick up a phone. Change "couldn't" to "wouldn't"

I think you'll find that sometimes reaching out and asking for help is impossibly difficult.

[Lucy's mama]

How tragic, the poor woman was escaping from severe difficulties in her life because she couldn't cope, and in so doing, caused more tragedy.

So sad.

When we all lived in villages, someone would have noticed that she wasn't travelling so well, and would have called in, but today,no one has time, and the cities are too large and impersonal.

Well said. I feel as sorry for the woman as I do her children.

[sebastion 2]

How truly awful for the doggies the children and the mum. Even the neighbours will have been affected by this.

[PaddyForever]

How tragic, the poor woman was escaping from severe difficulties in her life because she couldn't cope, and in so doing, caused more tragedy.

So sad.

When we all lived in villages, someone would have noticed that she wasn't travelling so well, and would have called in, but today,no one has time, and the cities are too large and impersonal.

Well said. I feel as sorry for the woman as I do her children.

Me, too. It's a terrible situation all round. The poor woman must have been ill, if she could live with the smell of the decaying bodies of two dead dogs, in her house, for two months, without removing them...! Those poor kids! They must have been so traumatised by this. Imagine looking at the rotting remains of those dogs for two months, and being so woefully neglected themselves. Sure, she got them to school and so may have looked after them minimally,(more likely, they looked after themselves), but for them not to have said anything? They must surely have been trying to protect her, and themselves...that poor 13 yr old...As a mother, my heart is crying out for those poor kids. I hope they're being cared for okay, and their mother gets the help she obviously needs. RIP at The Bridge, poor doggies.

Edited September 13, 2010 by PaddyForever

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

I find this very hard to fathom, at 13 you can do something, you don't have to leave the dogs unfed. Did they not have any relatives or friends at all??? You can speak to your teacher perhaps.

I accept she was obviously having some sort of mental trauma but there is no excuse for what she did.

[WreckitWhippet]

She wasn't ill, she was just neglected her children and animals full stop.