Children rescued from squalor (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Children rescued from squalor

8:49am Wednesday 2nd May 2007 in Swindon By Gazette Reporter

Police and social services raided the home of a family where 10 children were living in squalor.

Officers from the Child Protection Unit and members of Swindon council's Children and Families Team attended the address in Dawlish Road, Park North - the home of Jon and Mandy Hambidge - on Monday.

The front garden is covered in festering bags of rubbish and discarded furniture and the inside of the house is understood to be in a state of squalor with a powerful smell of urine.

Council spokeswoman Liz Richmond said: "We can confirm that the Children and Families Team at Swindon Council were alerted to an incident on Monday.

"We cannot comment any further on this case."

Last month Mr Hambidge, 44, escaped a jail term after putting his family's life at risk when he started a blaze in the garden shed.

He pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Swindon Crown Court heard he had been on a drink and lighter gas binge when his wife threw him out of the house in October last year.

Hambidge bedded down in the shed and started a small fire in a container to keep warm but the blaze got out of control.

Smoke poured from the outbuilding into the kitchen as the fire spread to the main house, the court heard.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, said Hambidge had been abusing alcohol and lighter gas on a three-month binge prior to the offence.

As well as the shed being gutted the utility room next to it was also severely damaged and the brigade found a growing fire at the side of the house when they arrived on the scene.

A fire investigator later discovered the smoke damage was so bad in the kitchen that nobody would have survived if they had been trapped in there.