A COUPLE who locked their two young children in the bedroom at their filthy home while they enjoyed "adult time" together have been handed suspended jail sentences at Bradford Crown Court.

The parents, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the little boy and girl, had fastened the door shut with child's reins when their health visitor made an unplanned visit.

Six months later, an Incommunities electrician working at the Bradford address, found it to be in a stinking, untidy and dirty state, prosecutor Clare Walsh told the court today.

The mother labelled her son Lucifer and the children were fastened in their room, this time by a belt round the door handle.

The electrician alerted the police after hearing crying and screaming coming from the bedroom.

The children's father was in the living room with the television set turned up loud, Mrs Walsh said.

A police search of the house found the bathroom sink full of rubbish, and excrement on a doll.

In the children's bedroom there was faeces on the wall, carpet, bedding and toys.

A large screw or nail had been fixed to the outside of the door to enable it to be fastened shut.

The father was asleep on the sofa and the mother looked as if she had just got out of bed. The little boy and girl were in dirty nightclothes.

There were large tanks containing snakes and lizards in the house.

The fridge freezer contained only milk and two packets of uncooked meat.

The children were taken into care and their parents were arrested.

Asked by Mrs Walsh if he had seen photos of the inside of the property, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said they were "quite distressing and unbelievable."

Both parents made no comment in their police interviews.

They each pleaded guilty to two charges of child cruelty by neglect.

Sarah-Kate McIntyre, barrister for the children's mother, said the youngsters were "well nourished, full of energy, happy and smiling" when the police attended.

"There is a body cam of them running to their mother and of her hugging them," she said.

Despite the neglect and the chaotic household, there was a close bond between the parents and their children.

The mother had herself been treated badly as a child and taken into care.

She fell out with her adopted mother and was depressed and isolated.

"She knows she needs to change and she knows she must be punished," Miss McIntyre said.

"She is desperate and determined to have her children returned to her."

Ashok Khullar, for the father, said it was neglect rather than deliberate cruelty and the probation service was prepared to work with the couple.

Judge Durham Hall told the parents: "This is a case of neglect not direct physical harm being inflicted."

But "conditions were not just poor, they were downright unhealthy."

"This was a level of parenting that many good parents will simply not understand," the judge added.

"You were not, and are not, good parents. You were at fault and much work will have to be done."

The couple were each sentenced to 30 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement to explore parenting and victim awareness issues.