xiii: you said move on (where do i go)

Tiffany Hirst had been dead for two days by the time they found her body in the squalid room above the pub.

A lack of food and water had brought on pneumonia. Her malnourished body was covered in insect bites. She had starved to death. Tiffany was three years old.

Her mother, Sabina Hirst, and stepfather, Robert Hirst, were charged with murder but this was reduced to a charge of manslaughter for the mother and "neglect" for the stepfather.

Tiffany was "unloved, unwanted and left to die alone" by her mother and stepfather who ran the pub below the wretched, beetle-infested room where she died.

Tiffany had been taken out of nursery because nobody could be bothered to take her there, or pick her up, and she had no contact with other children. People would often see her unsmiling little face looking out from the first floor window. Now she is dead.

There are plenty of great stepparents in this country who love their partner's children as if they were their own. But there are far too many kids who get left behind like Tiffany, treated as unwanted reminders of old, broken relationships, kids who get lumbered with brutes like the Hirsts.

Tiffany died more lonely than any child should ever be. Neglect? Is that what you call it?

Labels: sad story.

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