Nicola Lewington

Mottingham mum sentenced for child neglect during riots

Lizzie Dearden, Reporter Friday, April 20, 2012
9:35 AM

A mother from Mottingham who pleaded guilty to child neglect after leaving her two-year-old daughter at home to go out during August’s disorder is keeping custody of her child.

Nicola Lewington left court with a friend

The toddler, now three, was found alone the following morning by her grandmother with a soiled nappy cold, hungry and “crying for her mother”.

Nicola Lewington, of Albert Road, was given an 18 month supervision order at Bromley Magistrates Court yesterday.

She will have regular one-to-one sessions with officers as part of the ‘structured supervision for women’ programme and pay £85 costs.

Defending lawyer James McCooey had asked the magistrates to be “merciful” in their sentence, which could have been a jail term.

He said: “This is not a woman packing her bags and going on holiday. She would have been home if it weren’t for the arrest.”

On the evening of August 9, the 24-year-old went out to get a takeaway, leaving her daughter Tiana with a friend called Becky, the court heard.

She then met some friends and gave them a lift to Orpington.

Police officers found Lewington and four others at 1am with looted goods from the Brighthouse electrical store and arrested them.

Lewington was kept in custody for two months before being acquitted of burglary.

She pleaded guilty to failing to protect a child from abandonment in January but the sentence was delayed because the woman Lewington claimed she left her daughter with could not be traced.

Lawyers postponed the case to try to find ‘Becky’ but she never came forward. Lewington said she did not know her surname or where she lived.

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