It was “the little girl’s cry for help” that no one heard.

In a case of neglect that resulted in the death of Tiffany Hirst, 3, a court was told yesterday how passers-by used to see the gaunt face of the toddler staring through the window of her mother’s squalid flat.

Despite the flow of customers to and from the Sheffield pub below, senior detectives said that the neglect continued to go unnoticed, leaving the toddler to die, unloved and alone.

Tiffany was found by paramedics in a filthy bed in a beetle-infested room at the Scarbrough Arms in Addy Street, Upperthorpe. The pub was run by her mother, Sabrina Hirst, 22, and stepfather, Robert Hirst, 54.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Williams, who led the investigation into Tiffany’s death, said: “We have heard that Tiffany would be seen staring out of her bedroom window and this was probably the little girl’s cry for help but nobody realised.

“It is heartbreaking. We think this neglect had been going on for months and that those last few months, weeks and days of her life, she was unloved, unwanted, starved of attention and left alone to die and she would have known that.”

He added that officers, used to dealing with cases of neglect, had been traumatised by what they saw. “She was like a tiny porcelain doll, so tiny and frail and we all wondered how this had been allowed to happen in this day and age.

“Children are a gift and should be cherished. Parents everywhere, those who have lost them and people unable to have them, will find this treatment unbearable and unthinkable.

“This must never happen again and if people have any concerns at all or suspicions about the welfare of a child they must call somebody because if only one out of every thousand calls turns out to be founded and a child’s life is saved, it is worth it.”

Judge Alan Goldsack, QC, Recorder of Sheffield, adjourned the sentencing of the Hirsts, now of the Prince of Wales Feathers, Worsbrough Common, Barnsley, until the end of the month. She had admitted manslaughter and he admitted neglect. They were remanded in custody and are likely to face lengthy jail terms.

The court heard that the living quarters at the Scarbrough Arms where Tiffany died were “filthy and dangerous”. Live electrical wires were found hanging from the walls and one room where the family dogs were kept was full of excrement and urine.

In the 13 months leading up to Tiffany’s death, the Hirsts were “in a habit of leaving children locked up in residential quarters”. Tiffany was severely malnourished, covered in bites and eventually died of pneumonia.

A serious case review has been launched by Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board into Tiffany’s death and the neglect of another child – aged 12 months – to which the couple have also pleaded guilty. The board has representatives from the council, police, PCT, children’s hospital, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield Futures, NSPCC, and Probation Service. Alan Jones, its chairman, said: “We have been immensely saddened by the death of this three-year-old girl.

“The board has commissioned a review, to look at the involvement that agencies had with this family and to make sure any necessary changes are made so that children in Sheffield are no longer put at risk in this way.”

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