A STRESSED mum who couldn’t cope with “the terrible twos” left her young son home alone for five hours while she went out drinking.

The 30-year-old Poole woman downed four pints and four whiskeys, remaining at the pub until closing time before returning in a drunken state.

Prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, Stuart Ellacott said a next-door neighbour had called police after spotting the two-year-old standing on the lounge window ledge at 11.22pm on June 15 this year.

“He was screaming and crying. After being unable to get a response from the house the neighbour leant through the window to try and stop the boy from falling,” he said.

“Officers gained entry and found the child’s arms and legs covered in excrement which was also all over the lounge floor. He was in a very heavily soiled nappy. His bedroom was upstairs but there was no stair gate.”

Mr Ellacott added: “As the police were about to take the child away, his mother arrived. She appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

“She said she had left a babysitter there but later came clean and accepted she had gone out about 6.30pm.

“Her son had hit the terrible twos; she had had a very bad day and been woken early. When she put him to bed he had got up and she was unable to cope. She’d gone out to buy cigarettes and get a quick drink. Someone offered her a lift after closing time.”

In her defence, the court heard that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and pleaded guilty to one count of child neglect, had been extremely stressed for three months before the incident and was “desperately sorry for what she had done”.

Judge John Harrow imposed a 12-month community order with the conditions that the woman carries out 120 hours’ unpaid work, attends an education unit for eight days and is supervised for 12 months.

He told her: “What you did was a dreadful dereliction of your duty as a mother; you left your son on his own for five hours while you went out drinking, returning in a drunken condition. It is no thanks to you he wasn’t injured; he was very distressed.

“That type of behaviour most often attracts an immediate prison sentence. I’ve read about the stress you were under. You were at the end of your tether. I am satisfied you are fully contrite.

“You have now been offered a substantial amount of help and support and been willing to accept that. You have been allowed contact with your son and responded in a very positive manner. At least some good has come out of an awful act.”

Claude Knights, director of the Kidscape charity, branded the sentence as “very lenient,” adding: “It certainly doesn’t send out the required strong message.

“Babies, toddlers and very young children should never be left at home alone. It takes only a few seconds for the unthinkable to happen and this case could so easily have ended in tragedy.

“The distress and great anxiety suffered by this little child during five hours of abandonment can only be imagined and points to the poorest of judgement by a person who should have been protecting him.”