Mother jailed for 12 years after leaving her 'porcelain doll' daughter, three, to starve to death in beetle-infested room

Tiffany Wright was left neglected and unloved to die alone locked in a squalid bedroom above the pub run by her mother and stepfather.

Yesterday Sabrina Hirst, 22, was jailed for 12 years after admitting the manslaughter of her daughter.

'Like a porcelain doll with sunken eyes': Tiffany Wright was left to starve to death by her mother Sabrina Hirst

Her husband Robert, 44, was jailed for five years after admitting child cruelty and neglect.

Recorder Alan Goldsack QC said it was 'about as bad a case of child manslaughter as there can be'.

He told Sabrina Hirst: 'One almost unbelievable piece of evidence is that on what was probably Tiffany's last day alive, you were discussing on the phone concerns you had about one of your dog's weight and feeding problems.

'Most members of the public will find it impossible to understand how you can treat your child this way.'

While Tiffany was dying upstairs, her mother was caught on CCTV in the pub expressing concern about one of her dogs not getting enough vitamins and not putting on weight.

Tiffany' s mother Sabrina Hirst, left,  has been jailed for 12 years while her husband Robert Hirst has been imprisoned for five

Her barrister Andrew Robertson QC said. 'It is inexplicable. Her whole priorities have been utterly distorted. Her priority seems to have been given to the dog.'

Tiffany had been dead for about two days before her mother called police to the Scarbrough Arms in Upperthorpe, Sheffield.

It was when the pub had closed after a disco in the early hours of Sunday, September 30 last year. Her mother had not checked on her since 7am on Friday.

Police and paramedics found the little girl in a filthy bed in a beetle-infested room, her body covered in insect bites 'looking like a porcelain doll with sunken eyes'.

A room where the family dogs were kept was full of excrement and urine.

The stench was unbearable, even for experienced staff used to finding filthy homes.

The bedroom where Tiffany Wright's decomposing body was found by police after mum Sabrina contacted them

The living room of the flat above the Scarbrough Arms pub where little Tiffany died due to neglect and malnutrition

Tiffany's mother and stepfather were originally accused of murder but the charges were reduced.

Hirst, who was eight months pregnant when Tiffany died, and her husband also pleaded guilty to cruelty against a one-year-old child at Sheffield Crown Court.

She sobbed as prosecutor Jeremy Richardson QC said: 'The circumstances are truly appalling.

'Tiffany had not been seen for about a week by anyone other than her mother before her body was discovered.

'Much of the time her mother didn't feed Tiffany properly or at all.'

A pathologist said her bones showed evidence of significant periods of malnutrition between periods when she had been fed.

The flat was uninhabitable according to police, with electric wires hanging out and beetle infestations