Mother faces criminal charges for keeping children in house over-run with cockroaches ^Featured

The woman appeared for sentence on Monday though she was granted a discharge without conviction after a judge found a criminal record would prevent her from seeing her children again.

The North Shore woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her children, earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to discharge a legal duty, namely keeping a safe and hygienic living environment for her children.

According to a summary of facts, police visited the family's Beach Haven home after responding to concerns about the children's welfare.

Police arrived to find dozens of dirty nappies on the floor, hundreds of cockroaches, rancid dishes, only one working light, and little food- some which had been left to rot and was covered in maggots.

By way of explanation, the mother had told police that she knew the house was a mess but that she was too busy to clean it because she spent nights at a local hospital, where Judge Philippa Cunningham said "ironically" she worked as a cleaner.

In the Auckland District Court on Monday, Judge Cunningham was told that a conviction would inhibit the mother, aged in her 20s, from having contact with her children.

After she was charged in April this year, the two children aged four and three, were removed from her custody and subsequently moved to Tonga to live with their father.

Although the children were unharmed, Judge Cunningham said the woman admitted she had put them at risk and that she fallen "well short" of providing a clean home, but had felt "overwhelmed" looking after the two on her own.

The court heard that when one of the children was just a baby its father, the woman's husband, had moved to Tonga after being given a deportation order. The woman was left looking after the children on her own with very little family support, the judge said.

Since her arrest she had undertaken a "comprehensive" parenting course and it was clear she missed her children very much, the court was told.

"Like every other mother, or almost every other mother, she loves her children and is missing them enormously and I have no doubt they are missing her," Judge Cunningham said.

A conviction on her record would prohibit her from visiting Tonga, however there was a chance that she could gain citizenship to the country because her mother was born there.

"Based on what I know of immigration processes, that will take months and she's already been separated from her children for something like six months, and they her," Judge Cunningham said.

"The consequences of the conviction would be devastating not just for her, but for her husband too."

Granting the discharge without conviction, Judge Cunningham said she knew without a doubt that based on her work the woman knew how to keep a clean home and that there was unlikely to be a future risk to the children, provided she had support.

The woman was supported in court by a large contingent of family members who all wept outside the courtroom after the sentencing.

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