Social game-addicted mother neglects children, starves dogs to death

A 33-year-old mother in the U.K. was so hooked on a social game called Small World that she ignored her three children and starved her two dogs to death, according to the Daily Mail. The mother, whose name has been held in private by authorities, was taken to court after a neighbor saw the condition of her home through the window and reported the situation.

Suffering the recent loss of her husband, the mother of three fed her children, ages 9, 10 and 13, cold cooked beans from the can while she retreated to Small World for hours daily. She bought food that didn't require cooking and forced them to eat it out of the packaging due to a lack of utensils in the home, the Daily Mail reported.

While she made sure that her children made it to school daily, the mother refused to feed to her two dogs, whose bodies laid in her dining room for two months before her neighbor called the police.

After trying to block police from her dining room she admitted, "All right, my dogs are in there. They are dead. I killed them. I probably starved them, probably because I have been playing the computer game all the time."

The woman's three children are currently in foster care as she faces a suspended six-month prison sentence, 75 hours of unpaid work and a ban from computers and pets.