Australian couple found guilty of child cruelty

MELBOURNE - An Australian couple who left their three children in soiled nappies and raised them in a filthy house have been found guilty of child cruelty.

The man, 25, and the woman, 23, both unnamed, avoided a conviction with the court which gave them an 18-month probation Tuesday, the Age reported.

The Brisbane district court was told the couple was visited in 2009 by child safety officers who found the house in a deplorable state.

Mouldy food was found on the floor and rubbish, including bags of used nappies, was found strewn throughout the house and backyard, prosecutor Chris Kershaw said.

The three boys - aged four, 21 months and seven months - attended child care twice a week and the care-giver said they always arrived in dirty clothes, and wearing nappies that needed changing immediately.

Their bottles were also not clean and two of them had nappy rash, the court was told.

The oldest boy was found to have speech problems and the other two had respiratory infections from being around cigarette smoke.

Judge David Searles said the couple had never actively abused their children. He said he believed they had the determination to improve their household so the boys could return home.

“You have been unable to cope. You’ve been living in circumstances that can only be described as deplorable and subjecting the children to it that you now have lost the care of those children …,” he said.

The boys are currently living with their paternal grandmother.