A 6-year-old cradled her eight-month-old sister, as she watched music play on a computer screen.
Home alone with two other siblings and no readily available food or heating, police found the four children in a darkened, dirty house, lit only by the computer screen's glow.
Their mother Maraea Manu Gage had left them a bottle of milky tea, thick with sugar and the tea bag.
Appearing in Whangarei District Court today, Gage, 24, admitted four charges of ill treatment/neglect of a child under 18 years. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
Gage will be sentenced on August 1. The children are not currently in her care.
