A ‘lazy’ daughter, 24, who left her mother in the same clothes in her own faeces and urine for a year before dying, has been jailed with her partner.
Natasha Pammant and her partner Liam Leach, 26, left her 58-year-old skeletal mother in her Leeds home for a whole year.
The woman’s pitiful existence was only discovered when a concerned neighbor called social services for help.
When the social worker entered the home, she said the smell “hit her like a sledgehammer,” with flies hovering over the woman as she lay slumped in a chair, soaked in urine.
An ambulance was called as soon as paramedics arrived. The woman asked if they had any food.
Her sweater was smeared with feces and paramedics had to shower her to get her off the chair before taking her to the ambulance.
The woman also had large pressure ulcers on her body, including one that went ‘down to the bone’ and could have been fatal.
Natasha Pammant left her 58-year-old mother in her Leeds home for a whole year
Her partner Liam Leach, 26, has also been jailed after the vulnerable woman was found in May 2022 when a concerned neighbor called social services for help.
Pammant and her partner Leach were both jailed for 30 months
Prosecutor Catherine Silverton told Leeds Crown Court on Friday: ‘The woman had mental and physical health problems: asthma, COPD, depression, anxiety, self-neglect and malnutrition. The police went in May 2022 at the request of the ambulance service. A neighbor noticed he heard someone screaming and called social services.”
It was said that when a social worker looked into the house through a window, they saw a “skeletal leg” and “swollen ankle and foot.”
Mrs Silverton added: ‘There was a large amount of flies and flypapers full of flies hanging around the property. She [the woman] was found slumped in a chair. There were feces and stains on her sweater and the chair was soaked in urine.
‘She had been there for three months. Paramedics had to shower her to get her off the chair before taking her to the ambulance. The house smelled so bad that those who went inside found it difficult to breathe… The woman had been wearing the same sweater for a year.”
Ms Silverton added: ‘They were consistent with receiving little or no care for four months. The impact would have been fatal if the neighbors had not contacted social services.
“She said the defendants threw away her couch, forcing her to sit in the chair. She said she gave them her bank card for money, but they left her alone for days. She said she asked Ms. Pemmant to clean her up for three days before the police arrived.”
The court heard how Pammant’s mother had large pressure ulcers on her body, including one that was ‘down to the bone’, which could have been fatal
The prosecutor in court said: ‘Liam Leach blamed the council and doctors for the woman’s situation and described Ms Pammant as lazy’
She also had feces under her toenails and two cockroaches were found in the property, which “did not have a dirt-free surface”, it was said.
Ms Silverton said Pemmant, of Cartmell Drive, Halton and Leach, of South Farm Road in Gipton, arrived home and Pemmant told police her mother did not want help.
The prosecutor added: ‘A friend of the complainant said she came to visit up to a year before the police arrived. She said that Mrs. Pammant used to make her mother wait until 6pm for food and she did not want to take care of her, but she did it for the money.”
In her interview, Pammant was said to describe “generally difficult dealings” and said that “95 percent of the time it was Liam Leach who took her mother to the changing table.”
Mrs Silverton added: ‘She said her mother did not want medical attention but she accepted she should have called an ambulance. She accepted that the state of the house was disgusting.
‘Liam Leach blamed the council and doctors for the woman’s situation and described Ms Pammant as lazy.’
Both subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of cruelty to a person in their care, in addition to a second offence.
Mitigating for Leach, Catherine Duffy said his grandmother had died on the morning of the sentencing. She said: ‘It is not a case where he had responsibility for the woman. This case is a tragic and serious matter.”
The court heard Leach now lives alone and had shown a probation officer his garden and new property. Mrs Duffy said: ‘He is keen to show the probation service the progress he has made in the garden and how he has managed to keep the house clean and tidy.’ Ms Duffy said Leach himself has “significant vulnerabilities”.
Kristian Cavanagh said on behalf of Pammant: “This is a defendant who has struggled with her own fitness as a result of her poor upbringing. Of course, that inadequacy and lack of maturity – she was 22 at the time of the offense – combines both things and is a problem in the case…
‘She was bullied at school because of her own lack of cleanliness and she suffered because of it. There was a lack of emotional support from her mother.”
Recorder Alex Menary jailed both Pamment and Leach for 30 months.