A COURT heard how a woman in her seventies was living in squalor in her Hapton home.

Blackburn magistrates were told the woman was living in a neglected house with no heating, no hot water and no fridge.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said the house was so damp upstairs the woman slept on a mattress on the floor in a downstairs room.

She said the woman was officially described as vulnerable and it was a police welfare check which led to the appearance before the court of her grandson, Callum Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick, 30, of Beaconsfield Street, Haslingden, pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order by attending at his grandmother's home. He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay £85 costs and £122 victim surcharge.

Miss Allan said Fitzpatrick was made subject to the restraining order after being jailed for assaulting his grandma who was in her 70s.

She said a police officer went to the old lady's home to carry out a welfare check. She could see the woman in the house but she didn't answer the door at first.

When she was allowed in the officer asked if Fitzpatrick was there but was told he wasn't. The officer was suspicious and eventually found him hiding in the back room.

Aftab Bakhat, defending, said his client had only attended because a message had been passed to him saying his grandma wanted to see him.

"She told him she had made a mistake with the restraining order and she wanted to try to overturn it," said Mr Bakhat.

"She may ultimately make an application to the court to have the order removed but he knows that until that happens he must stay away. It was only because of the contact he received that he attended on this day."