A mother neglected her three children and let her two dogs starve to death after becoming obsessed with a computer game and retreating into a virtual world, a court heard.

Her dogs lay rotting in the dining room for two months as the 33-year-old widow played on the internet almost non-stop.

After a neighbour peered through the letterbox and saw the "appalling conditions", the NSPCC was told and police officers gagged as they entered the Swanley home and saw the "decay and filth".

The children had been given no hot food and were forced to "drink" cold baked beans from the tin because there were no spoons.

The mother, who cannot be identified, was given a suspended prison sentence after admitting three charges of child cruelty and two of animal neglect.

Maidstone Crown Court was told the children were badly neglected for six months.

For the full story see this week's Dartford Messenger, out Thursday.