Bodybuilding obsession.

A 37-year-old woman from Liverpool left her three children at home during a week in May to help friends competing at a bodybuilding contest in Spain.

Fortunately, the children – ages six, eight, and 16 – stayed safe in her absence.

It’s possible nobody would even have discovered the neglect, but at school the six year old mentioned that his mother had gone away. She was contacted by the school but refused to return, claiming she was making arrangements for their supervision.

She was then contacted by social services and still refused to return. According to BBC, Prosecutor Zia Chaudhry said that after the children were taken into social care she called them, “screaming and shouting.”

The mother did try to make an arrangement for supervision with another woman who had been investigated for child sex abuse. Names have been withheld to protect the children.

Liverpool Crown Court also heard that mother faked email chats to show how she tried to get friends to care for the children, and tried to convince her ex-husband to lie and say he would care of them.

But this is not the first time that considerations of fitness have superseded the mother’s concern for the children.

Earlier in 2017, she left her two youngest in the car while she worked out at the gym. And she left all three home alone in 2013 to attend an equestrian event. The youngest child, then three years old, was found wandering the streets in the early hours of the morning

Judge Robert Trevor-Jones addressed her in court:

“You were asked to come home at the earliest opportunity but you declined and remained until the expiry of that week, displaying callous, self-centred indifference to the position of your children – a thread which runs through this case.”

Gareth Roberts, attorney for the defense, said:

“She has made a massive mistake combined with an equally significant serious error of judgement.”

Eventually the mother pleaded guilty to two offenses of child neglect and attempting to pervert the course of justice and will be jailed for 12 months.

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