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A 20-year-old mother abandoned her baby for FIVE days and nights while she went partying.
The 16 month-old girl was only found after neighbours heard her screams. Police broke down the door of the house in Brecon, Powys, to find the child in a nappy that hadn't been changed for days and blood on the blanket.
A court heard she was so thirsty that the little girl gulped down water the police gave her, then grabbed food from their hands.
Her mother, who cannot be identified – ironically to protect her daughter - was traced to a friend's house and admitted abandoning her daughter so she could party from dusk till dawn.
But she insisted she had occasionally popped back to her stinking, beer can-strewn house to feed her daughter on Cheerios and bread.
The mother - who pleaded guilty to neglect, cruelty, ill-treatment, abandonment and wilful assault of her baby over five days - wept as she was threatened with jail.
She will be sentenced later after prosecutor Heath Edwards told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court: "The police got in through an open window and found the house a total mess.
"The officer saw the child lying in the crib.
"There was a strong smell of urine. Her clothes were stinking dirty and had not been changed for several days.
"The lounge was strewn with bottles and beer cans. There was clear indication of drug abuse."
The baby was taken back to the police station where nappies were bought from a corner shop.
Judge Richard Twomlow told the mum that the baby - now being cared for by relatives - suffered "pain and misery".