A Clax­ton Bay moth­er was yes­ter­day re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody, while an­oth­er from San Fer­nan­do was placed on a $3,000 bond when they both ap­peared in court for wil­ful­ly ne­glect­ing their young chil­dren. Yes­ter­day An­janie Ra­goo, 40, of Union Vil­lage, Clax­ton Bay, and Fea Brown, 30, a moth­er of two of St Joseph Street, Mon Re­pos, ap­peared be­fore San Fer­nan­do Fourth Court Mag­is­trate In­dar Ja­groo charged with ne­glect­ing their chil­dren over the week­end. Both women plead­ed guilty.

Ra­goo, who was un­rep­re­sent­ed, plead­ed guilty to the charge that on Au­gust 11, at Union Vil­lage, St Mar­garet's, she did will­ful­ly ne­glect or ex­pose her ten-year-old son in a man­ner to cause him suf­fer­ing or in­jury to health. The charge was laid by WPC Pitt. Brown was charged with will­ful­ly ne­glect­ing her 11-year-old son and five-year-old daugh­ter on Sun­day. She al­so plead­ed guilty.

She was ar­rest­ed and charged by PC Seer­at­tan. Ra­goo was re­mand­ed to the Women's Prison pend­ing a Pro­ba­tion Of­fi­cer's re­port. She will reap­pear in court on Au­gust 21 for sen­tenc­ing. The woman al­so com­plained of ab­dom­i­nal cramps and headaches. She asked to be tak­en for med­ical ex­am­i­na­tion which Ja­groo or­dered. Ja­groo is­sued a strong warn­ing to Brown who said she left her chil­dren home alone to at­tend a chris­ten­ing ten min­utes away from her home.

"You can­not leave your chil­dren, you can­not do these things. It may seem a sim­ple mat­ter. In this world we can­not leave our chil­dren un­at­tend­ed even for a minute. Do not ever do it again," he said. He placed Brown, who was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney An­nalee Gir­war, on a $3,000 bond to keep the peace for one year. He al­so or­dered that she re­port to the Pro­ba­tion Of­fi­cer's de­part­ment. In Ra­goo's mat­ter, Po­lice Pros­e­cu­tor Ramdeo Sookdeo told the court that at 8 am on Sat­ur­day the 40-year-old left her son at home with­out su­per­vi­sion.

A re­port was lat­er made to St Mar­garet's Po­lice Sta­tion. Around 1.40 am on Sun­day po­lice of­fi­cers went to her home and found the tenyear- old alone. He was tak­en to Cou­va Health Fa­cil­i­ty for treat­ment and then to the po­lice sta­tion. Of­fi­cers lat­er met Ra­goo at Val's Bar, St Mar­garet's Junc­tion. She was stag­ger­ing and smelt of al­co­hol. When told of the re­port Ra­goo said: "He know where the key dey for the house." The child's fa­ther told the mag­is­trate his son is stay­ing with an aunt.

He said he does not live with Ra­goo "full-time." In Brown's mat­ter, the pros­e­cu­tor said around 12.10 am on Sun­day of­fi­cers re­ceived in­for­ma­tion and went to a wood­en house with no steps and a door­way shield­ed by a piece of ply­wood. They knocked on the wood and Brown's son an­swered. Of­fi­cers asked if any adults were in the house, the child replied: "No, my lit­tle sis­ter here and she sleep­ing."

The girl then came to the door­way. They were both tak­en to the Mon Re­pos Po­lice sta­tion. At 7.15 am Brown came to the sta­tion where she was told of the re­port. She said: "Of­fi­cer I leave them chil­dren around 10.30 pm last night (Sat­ur­day) and went to a chris­ten­ing and when I come back home I hear the po­lice gone with the chil­dren."