The couple whose three-year-old girl starved to death in a beetle-infested room above their Sheffield pub
When Robert and Sabrina Hirsts were jailed the court heard members of the public would see Tiffany “staring out of her bedroom window”
In an instance of what was described by a judge as "about as bad a case of child manslaughter as there can be" Sheffield couple Robert and Sabrina Hirst allowed their three-year-old child to starve to death in a room above a city pub.
Infant girl Tiffany Wright’s body was found decomposing by police in a beetle-infested room at Upperthorpe’s Scarborough Arms in on September 30, 2007.
She died of malnutrition in the bedroom littered with dirty nappies and clothes which also had dog excrement smeared over the walls, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
When the Hirsts were jailed in June the following year the court heard members of the public would see Tiffany “staring out of her bedroom window”.
Her mother, Sabrina, 22, did not find her body until two days after her death. Stepfather Robert Hirst was heard shouting “you little bitch. Eat your fucking food,” at the child by a witness on one occasion.
The court heard how in the moments after Sabrina found Tiffany dead in her room and before police arrived he was shown on the the pub's CCTV saying “we've f****d it all up" and "we're going to get banged up for this".
Other footage showed Sabrina Hirst carrying on working in the bar in the days before her daughter's death. At one point she is heard talking on the phone showing concern about whether her dogs had been fed.
As the little girl lived in squalor, people were “partying downstairs” and even having “karaoke competitions”, the court was told.
A post-mortem had revealed the young girl had not been fed or had a drink for more than 20 hours prior to her death. Tiffany died from bronchial pneumonia, which was a direct result of malnutrition.
An analysis of her bones showed she had been subjected to intermittent malnutrition for a prolonged period of time.
Opening the case, Jeremy Richardson QC told the judge Tiffany died because she "simply had not been fed or given fluids".
Mr Richardson said the forgotten child was reared in "circumstances of abject squalor and degradation", describing how the couple would go out leaving the girl alone in the excrement-covered flat with bare electrical cables exposed.
She was often "never fed properly, if at all" and lived in "squalor, filth and degradation", said the prosecutor, who added that the squalor "almost defies description for any human being to live in".
Judge Alan Goldsack QC heard Tiffany weighed about one-and-a-half stone (9kg) at the time of her death, and was 3ft 4ins tall. She had put on less than a kilogram in weight in the last two years of her life.
He told the couple: "Most members of the public, particularly parents, will find it impossible to understand how you could treat your children in this way.
"One almost unbelievable piece of evidence is that on what was probably Tiffany's last day alive you, Sabrina Hirst, were discussing on the phone concerns you had about one of your dogs' weight and feeding problems."
Speaking after the Hirsts were jailed, acting detective chief inspector Dave Powell said: "It is a very, very sad case and you only have to think about her last few day, when sat alone, unloved, uncared for in the bedroom.
“When the most natural thing in the world for her to want and need is a mother's love, She didn't get that love and that is tragic."
After the case concluded Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board said a serious case review had been launched to learn lessons.
Sabrina Hirst was jailed for 12 years after admitting manslaughter. Robert Hirst was jailed for five years after admitting child cruelty.