A 27-year-old man from Lanarkshire, Scotland has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for neglecting and keeping his daughter without food for almost a day, which eventually led to her death. The incident took place in December 2017, just five days before Christmas.

Michael Conroy, 27, admitted to neglecting his daughter Kiera after he and the baby's mother, 24-year-old, Kirsty Boyle, left the baby alone in a room for 21 hours. The baby was later found lifeless by her parents.

The couple admitted that they had the habit of staying awake all night playing games on their phone or watching TV. The investigation into the matter further revealed that the last meal that Kiera had consisted of four chicken nuggets and spaghetti hoops.

The couple had pulled an all-nighter on December 20, 2017, and woke up the next day at 3 pm. They finally went to check on their daughter at 5 pm, and discovered that she had turned "very white" with vomit around her mouth.

The couple also did not ensure a clean and safe environment for the baby in their flat. The house was "filthy with suffocation hazards and dirty nappies" all over in the room. It was unheated and cans with sharp edges were scattered around the house.

The father admitted to wilfully causing his daughter to be ill-treated, neglecting, and exposing her in a manner likely to cause her unnecessary suffering or injury to health.

"Taking account of the fact that you have previously been the subject of a community payback order which was breached, with sadness, I have concluded that no method of disposal other than custody is appropriate," said Sheriff Fergus Thomson, according to Glasgow Live.

The sheriff further stated that he would have sentenced Conroy to 18 months had he pleaded not guilty to the crime.

The baby's mother Boyle, however, pleaded not guilty to the crime and the prosecutors accepted her denial. She added that she had assumed that the baby was asleep.

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Scotland