(1/20/00)
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - A Scottish judge rebuked social workers for rescuing a monkey from a couple addicted to heroin but failing to notice a 5-year-old girl living with them in squalor, court officials said on Thursday.
Social workers eventually discovered the girl, whose fingernails had not been cut for more than a year, covered in bed sores, lying in her own filth and wearing a plaster cast on her broken leg that should have been removed 10 months earlier.
On an earlier visit, state welfare workers had contacted an animal welfare group about a pet monkey being kept in the flat.
Social workers visited the couple's house 32 times but said they were allowed inside only 17 times.
A Glasgow court judge criticized them for failing to notice the plight of the girl. "To say the least, I am very surprised the girl's predicament did not come to light," he said.
Social workers defended their actions by saying that ``the monkey was so cute, we didn't notice some ugly human child rotting in the corner.''
When doctors finally removed the cast from the girl, whose leg has been permanently scarred, they found spoons, a fork, and a pen she had used to try to scratch her ulcers, as well as an entire nest of tiny bloodsucking spiders.
The couple who had lived in the flat were sentenced to five years in jail. The judge said they were guilty of a ``revolting'' crime.