A ‘mother from hell’ and her husband who left their reclusive adult daughter to starve to death in ‘appalling’ squalor were each jailed for eight years today.
Steffie Davies’ ‘skeletal’ body was found covered in deep, infected bed sores and in a ‘terrible’ state when paramedics were called to her home.
Mold Crown Court heard that her parents, Bernita and Alan Davies, both 60, ‘ghosted’ the 32-year-old, who suffered from anxiety, and failed to get her any medical help – even though she had been bed bound for up to 12 months.
Ms Davies claimed to have spoken to Steffie and changed her bedsheets around 36 hours before she dialled 999, on May 26, 2023.
But today a High Court judge said that was a ‘cynical’ lie to try and absolve herself of blame and, in reality, Steffie had likely died ‘several’ days earlier.
Despite having no diagnosed mental or physical health problems, she weighed less than six stones when she passed away.
Jailing the couple, who admitted causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult, Mrs Justice Mary Stacey told them that the ‘extent of the pain and suffering that Steffie endured’ in the months before she died was proof they had neither ‘loved or cared’ for her.
‘There is no evidence of her ever having been shown love or affection,’ the judge said.
Steffie Davies’ parents, Alan (pictured left) and Bernita Davies, both 60, were jailed for eight years for allowing her death
Reclusive Steffie Davies, 32, had been bedbound for 12 months and died in ‘terrible’ conditions
‘Instead, she was verbally abused by you, and you showed complete indifference to her suffering.
‘As she lay in extreme pain, wasting away and dying, you both carried on with your lives, going to work, feeding yourselves from the well-stocked fridge-freezer and larder, while she lay starving and unable to feed herself in the next door room. You simply ignored her.’
The court heard neighbours described Ms Davies as a ‘mother from hell’ who constantly shouted at Steffie and her two siblings when they were young children.
One told police that the last time they saw Steffie was in 2016 – seven years before her death – when Ms Davies called her ‘stupid’ and shouted at her in the street to get the ‘f***ing dog back in.’
Text messages recovered from Steffie’s mobile phone, which included one asking her mother to open her bedroom window, revealed she had been unable to get out of bed as early as August 2022, nine months before her death.
Other messages to Ms Davies, a former supervisor in a supermarket, requesting vitamins and protein shakes ‘to settle her tummy’ went unanswered and were proof of her ‘ghosting’ her daughter, the court heard.
Steffie’s younger brother also told officers that, by Christmas 2022, she was so weak she was unable to open a box of chocolates he had bought her as a present.
Earlier, an upsetting 999 call, made to the ambulance service by Ms Davies, shortly after 8.30am on May 26, 2023 was played to the court.
In it she tearfully described her daughter as being ‘dead…wet and cold’ and ‘gone beyond any help.’
Alan and Bernita Davies (pictured) arriving at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday. A post-mortem found their daughter, Steffie, 32, died of sepsis caused by infected bed sores
Mrs Justice Mary Stacey, sitting at Mold Crown Court (pictured) told the couple: ‘There is no evidence of Steffie ever having been shown love or affection.’
Andrew Jones KC, prosecuting, said paramedics who arrived at the couple’s home, in Wrexham, north Wales, noticed an ‘awful smell’ when they entered Steffie’s ground floor bedroom.
They saw lice living in Steffie’s long matted hair and flies buzzing around her mouth.
One experienced paramedic said he was ‘shocked’ when he pulled back the duvet and saw the state of her body.
He said it was obvious to him Steffie had been dead for ‘several’ days and immediately called police.
‘When the ambulance crew arrived, they found Steffie Davies in her bed,’ Mr Jones said. ‘She was emaciated and cold to touch.
‘Her body was described as being stiff. It was clear that she had been left in a terrible state to die.’
Dr Brian Johnson, a pathologist who examined Steffie’s malnourished body, found her skin covered in a fungal infection and scores of deep, bloody bed sores, some of which were down to the bone.
Dr Johnson was unable to say exactly when Steffie passed away but concluded she had died of sepsis, caused by the infected pressure sores, combined with her very low body weight.
Another expert doctor estimated the ulcers had been left untreated for at least six weeks.
They were so ‘extreme’ that Steffie would have been in considerable pain and needed help to drink, eat and wash, the medic said.
In their opinion, ‘earlier stage assistance from the community teams’ could have prevented the development of such serious ulcers without the need for Steffie to have been hospitalized, and could also have provided an opportunity to assess why she was refusing medical intervention.
However, today Wrexham Council confirmed that Steffie was ‘not known’ to social services at the time of her death.
A spokesman added: ‘We will be liaising with North Wales Safeguarding Board in order to consider if this case meets the threshold for a review.’
Photographs of Steffie’s ‘dirty’ bedroom, which included a large collection of stuffed teddy bears and toys, were shown to the court but images of her body were deemed too ‘distressing’ to be shown in public.
Conditions in the room were described as ‘appalling,’ compared to others in the property.
The judge told the pair: ‘It was hard not to notice the contrast between your well-kept garden and neatly mown lawn, keeping up appearances outside, and the state of Steffie’s filthy bedroom and her utter neglect.’
Ms Davies told police Steffie refused to go outside or socialize and wanted to be on her own.
She said that when she tried to get her to leave their red-brick semi, including for doctors or hospital appointments, she would threaten not to eat.
But the judge said there was no evidence to back up this claim and, although at times Steffie could be ‘strong-willed,’ she was a ‘submissive and obedient’ daughter who would ‘listen’ to her parents and would have gone to visit the doctor if they had made an appointment for her.
‘You were both well able to visit the doctor and get medical help for your own problems, but you made no effort to get any help for Steffie when her life became more and more withdrawn, and her horizons narrowed,’ Mrs Justice Stacey added.
She said she did not accept there was evidence of ‘genuine remorse’ from the couple, adding that pre-sentence reports showed victim-blaming and self-pity.
The judge said Steffie did not have underlying health problems before her death, and added: ‘It was you, her parents, you were the problem.’
The couple, who are grandparents and have been married for 27 years, admitted they had failed Steffie, who was the second born of their three children.
They were initially arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter but answered ‘no comment’ when questioned by officers.
Guilty pleas to the lesser charge were accepted by the Crown at a hearing in January.
In a statement, Steffie’s older sister, who didn’t want to be named, agreed her younger sibling ‘struggled’ with social situations and that their childhood ‘wasn’t easy.’
She said she had last seen Steffie at her own wedding, in October 2015, but the pair effectively became estranged soon afterwards when she cut her parents out of her life ‘to protect her own mental well-being.’
Despite this, she said had lots of happy memories of Steffie, who loved animals and enjoyed making up dances to Abba, growing up.
‘She had so much potential but needed the right encouragement and support which she did not get,’ her sister said.
‘I have sleepless nights thinking about what my sister went through and, if things had been different, I might have been able to help.
‘What I replay over and over is Steffie always listened to mum and dad and did what she was told.
‘Why did they not take her to a doctor or call someone for help? How could they watch her fade away and do nothing? It is a question I will ask myself for the rest of my life.
‘With the right support and encouragement Steffie could have done so much with her life, instead she was left to fade into insignificance in the most inhumane way possible, no sentence will ever be enough to atone for that.’
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Sarah-Jayne Williams, of North Wales Police, said it was ‘difficult to comprehend how a once fit and healthy woman had been able to deteriorate to the point of death with no intervention from her mother and father’ who were fully aware of her deteriorating condition.
‘Both Alan and Bernita Davies have acknowledged the level of care they provided for their daughter was woefully inadequate, which led to her tragic and unavoidable death,’ the officer said.
Maria Massellas, defending Ms Davies, said her client had felt ‘overwhelmed’ by having to care for Steffie and would have to live with the fact she had ‘failed’ her for the rest of her life.
Simon Rogers, defending Mr Davies, a factory worker who held his head in his hands as details of his daughter’s injuries were outlined, admitted being a ‘bad father’ and was genuinely remorseful.
He had previously suffered from bladder cancer and was currently awaiting test results for a lump in his neck, the court heard.