A boozed-up Margate mother has been sent to prison after giving up on her children and allowing them to live in shocking squalor.

The 35-year-old cannot be publicly named to protect the identities of the youngsters who were forced to endure the horrific conditions for a year.

A judge at Canterbury Crown Court heard how when police and social services raided the house in October last year they discovered “a most drastic situation”.

Officers walked inside and saw urine, faeces and rotting rubbish littering the whole house, and "piles of dirty clothes strewn all over the floors".

There was little food in the house and the children had no cutlery to use in a kitchen infested with flies and bags of decomposing food.

The court heard how there was not even a lightbulb in one of the bedrooms - and a police officer was not able to see a young child sitting there in the dark.

The bathroom was “unusable” and shards of broken mirror were scattered all over the floor where the children walked.

Elsewhere, officials could find no blankets, pillows, sheets or duvets on the beds and dogs “roamed around” the house leaving animal faeces all over the stairs.

"You completely failed to take responsibility for the care of your children" - Judge Adele Williams

Heartrendingly, the younger children were sent to school each day covered in headlice, where caring staff bathed them and clothed them in clean uniforms – which were kept at the school – so they wouldn’t be bullied by other pupils.

Judge Adele Williams told the weeping mum: “In the weeks before the officers arrived you had been drinking heavily, having been in two abusive relationships with men.

“You completely failed to take responsibility for the care of your children.”

She said the mum had been spoken to by social services on several occasions about improving the children’s environments.

But after initial improvements, she had given up and what officials then found was “a most distressing situation”.

She was arrested and admitted a number of child cruelty charges.

The judge jailed her for two years, saying: “You had given up and abdicated your responsibility for these children.”

All of them were taken into the care of the local authority and are now reported to be “thriving” in their new environment, the court was told.

But Judge Williams added: “Just what emotional damage has been caused remains to be seen in the future.”

The mother had “a poor start in life” and her relationships with the fathers had been both “traumatic and abusive”.

But, added the judge: “That goes no way to excuse your failure to take the most basic care of your children.”