[2025] EWCA Crim 1173

The relevant facts are that the applicant and her co-defendant met when they were teenagers and formed a relationship. The victim was born when they were both 17. The co-defendant was the victim's father.

The co-defendant started to sexually abuse the victim, both with digital penetration of her vagina and performing oral sex on her. This was when she was aged between 3 and 5 years. Thereafter, the victim was raped regularly. On occasions that occurred in the presence of the applicant. Rapes took place outdoors and on one occasion another man raped her in the presence of the co-defendant.

The police were alerted when messages about the availability of a 22 year old woman and her 4 year old daughter for sex were posted by the co-defendant.

The victim was placed into the care of her grandmother while police investigated. The victim made no disclosures and she was returned to the applicant who entered into an agreement with Social Services not to have the co-defendant live in the same household. That agreement was breached almost immediately. The co-defendant returned to abuse the victim.

When she was aged 5 the victim approached a classmate and asked him to have sex with her, which she considered to be normal behaviour and which came to the attention of the school. The victim, not surprisingly, also displayed sexualised behaviour.

The victim was removed from the care of the applicant and placed in foster care. She was then placed with her grandmother. That placement broke down because of the victim’s challenging behaviours, damaged as she was because of the offending.

A man was arrested in November 2022 and his WhatsApp chats with the co-defendant about the rape of an 8 year old girl were discovered. In January 2023 the applicant and the co-defendant were arrested. The applicant made no admissions in interview.

The applicant was charged with child cruelty on the basis that she was aware that the victim had been raped and sexually assaulted by the co-defendant on no less than five separate occasions, but did nothing to protect the victim. The victim had reported bleeding from her vagina to the applicant when she was first raped by the co-defendant.