Three Children Left Home Alone as Mother 'Honeymoons'

A mature college student left her three children at home for two weeks while she went on her honeymoon, her neighbours claimed.

Police found the back door of the family home in Leeds open on Saturday evening. The three children were under a bed.

Simten Sadiq, 33, was seen carrying a balloon with the words “Just Married” on it days before she disappeared, neighbours said.

She had recently had an Islamic ceremony with an Austrian man.

Detectives are trying to establish what arrangements were made for the children, aged four, six and 11, and whether they were on their own for long periods, including overnight.

They have been taken into protective custody. Officers are working with social services. All three were understood to have been fed throughout.

Police said they did not appear to have any injuries and were fit and well. Police found the children aged five, six and eleven, under a bed after they were alerted by neighbours.

Their father Parvez Sadiq, 43, a private hire taxi driver, who lives half a mile away, said he only became aware of what had happened when social workers told him.

Mr Sadiq met her in her native Turkey when she was 17, they married and she moved to the UK in 1992 after being granted a visa.

At first she could not speak any English, but enrolled at college initially to study a GCSE in Maths.

In the summer of 2006 she moved out of the matrimonial home, leaving her four children, including eldest son aged 14, with her husband.

She went on to stay with a student friend after being accepted on a BA degree course in Education Studies at Bradford College.

Mr Sadiq said after completing the first year of the course in June last year, she was granted a council house after returning for the three youngest children.

[Via Telegraph]