UK girl's parents jailed for her truancy

A 14-year-old girl was taken into foster care yesterday after both her parents were jailed for her truancy from school.

Christopher and Deborah Haine were jailed for four months after their daughter Shlaine only attended school for the equivalent of six days over a seven-month period.

The couple, from Newport, in South Wales, were told in court they had shown a "complete disregard" towards the school attendance of their daughter Shlaine.

Anthony Harris, a chairman at Newport Magistrates' court, said the couple had also shown contempt for the two month suspended sentence imposed on them in January of this year for a similar conviction regarding their daughter.

Mr and Mrs Haine, both 41, were first prosecuted in 2002 for failing to ensure Shlaine and their son Caine attended school.

The court heard that Shlaine, a pupil at the city's Hartridge High school, will now live with foster parents while her mother and father serve their sentence.

Andrew Jones, prosecuting for Newport City Council, said the couple had shown a blatant disregard for their daughter's school attendance despite being sentenced to two months imprisonment, suspended for six months, in January for similar offences.

Tristan Clappe, defending, said the couple had tried to make their daughter go to school but were confronted by a teenager who refused to listen.

In sentencing the couple, Mr Harris told the Haines that he would activate their two month suspended sentence imposed in January and add another two months for the latest breach of the Education Act.

He said: "It is clear from what we've heard that staff at school and the education authority have done everything they can to assist you in this."

He added that the pair had shown "nothing but contempt" towards such help as well as to the court.

Parents of persistent truants have become increasingly likely to be jailed under the Government's crackdown on absenteeism.

Courts now have the power to jail parents for up to three months or to fine them up to £2,500.

In 2002 Patricia Amos, the Oxfordshire single mother, became the first parent to be jailed for their child's truancy.

Ms Amos was jailed for failing to ensure that her daughters, Emma, 15, and Jackie, 13, attended lessons at their Banbury comprehensive school.

She was sentenced to 60 days in jail in 2002 but was released on appeal after serving two weeks in prison.

The sentence was hailed as a success by ministers after Ms Amos's daughters said that seeing their mother behind bars had convinced them to return to school.

- INDEPENDENT