A mother and stepfather who forced their 11-year-old son to live in a filthy converted coal bunker were due to be sentenced today.
Bullied and constantly hungry, the traumatised boy was made to live and sleep in the room, described as a "cell" by social workers, and was reduced to using a potty as he was locked up each night until morning.
The parents, in their 40s, both admitted a single charge of cruelty by wilful neglect between January 2010 and January 2011 at an earlier hearing.