Holiday mum guilty

A mother who abandoned her four children for a week to go on holiday with her boyfriend to the Canary Islands was today found guilty of child cruelty.

The 44-year-old woman from Ham, south west London, became "desperate" when she could not find anyone to look after the children, aged between five and 13.

Although she left one son - aged 11 - in the care of a childminder, the other four were left to fend for themselves - after spending just one night with the mother of one of her daughter's school friends.

She gave the daughter, whose school friend her children were to stay with, £40 and a note saying that her eldest child, her 13-year-old son, would take care of the other children after school and cook them dinner.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed during her trial at Kingston Crown Court that the other mother had agreed to take care of the children for the week.

But a jury of six men and six women rejected her story and took just under an hour to return a unanimous guilty verdict on four charges of cruelty towards a person under 16, which she had denied.

Judge Charles Tilling adjourned sentencing until October 13 for reports and added that he was keeping "options open" as to the appropriate course of action to be taken.