Social workers and medics knew nothing of the plight of a boy found starved and mummified in his cot because his mother failed to co-operate with services, a UK court heard today.

A mother accused of killing her under-nourished four-year-old son told detectives it was not her who starved him because "he would starve himself", a British court has heard.

A UK police officer who found the mummified body of a four-year-old boy as he searched a house has told a jury today that he was so shocked that he could not stop his hand shaking.

The brother of a four-year-old boy whose body was found

The mummified corpse of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother’s bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a jury has been told.

The mummified corpse of a four-year-old boy was found in a cot in his mother’s bedroom almost two years after he starved to death, a jury has been told.