"YOU wouldn't let a dog live in those conditions," says a woman in Havana Walk in Ardoyne. "It breaks my heart to think that four wee children were being reared amidst all that squalor."
It is difficult to over emphasise the dirty conditions in which Ms Patricia Quinn (22) lived with her young family - Conor (4), Joseph (3), Kerry (2) and 10 month old Sean.
A pile of festering rubbish lies in the garden outside. The smell of urine and beer inside is overpowering. Litter is dumped everywhere. Cigarette butts, beer cans and battered toys are strewn across the living room floor.
Most of the furniture has been knocked over. The curtains lie on the alcohol stained carpet. A picture on the wall carries the words "God Bless This House".
There is no food in the kitchen except frozen chips. The worktop is a mess of dirty dishes and more beer cans. But upstairs is worse. There are no bedclothes on the beds. The mattress on the baby's cot is soaked with urine.
In another bedroom, milk bottles filled with stale urine sit beside the beds. "Tricia 96" and a range of men's names are among the graffiti on the walls. A broken and dangerous mirror balances precariously over the bath room wash hand basin.
Ms Quinn is believed to have moved into the house three months ago after living in west Belfast. She is understood to be unemployed. Neighbours said they soon became worried about the children's welfare.
"You would see them at night sitting naked at the windows," said one woman. "I told the mother that she should pot some clothes on them but she just laughed."
Another woman said the children seemed continually hungry. "They were always smelly. Everyone in the street felt sorry for them. We would give them whatever food we could."
Four year old Conor was spotted climbing through the living room window and eating bread from the street that had been left for the birds. He was also seen rummaging through bins for food.
One woman said she was so concerned about the children that she rang social services twice. She said that she made an official complaint and gave her name and address.
She said social services made emergency calls on both occasions but left the house after a short while and appeared to take no action. Nobody ever got back to tell me what was happening, she added.
Another woman said social services visited the house almost every day anyway. "We were never inside her house so we didn't know how bad it was. But even from outside we could see that something was wrong," she said.
"Social services were inside her home. Did they not inspect the children's sleeping conditions and see that there were no bedclothes and that the baby's mattress was covered in urine?"
Neighbours said the house was regularly used as a "drinking den", with one party lasting a fortnight.
Neighbours telephoned the RUC on Saturday morning, alter noticing that the children seemed to be have been unattended overnight. It is understood officers had to mask their faces before entering the house in order to block the smell.
Police sources have confirmed the conditions inside were dirty and unsanitary. Four drunken youths, who are not related to the children were still inside. They argued with the RUC but eventually left. Police contacted social services.
Officers asked neighbours to wash and feed the children before they were taken into care. One woman said the baby was wearing a nappy covered in excrement. He was so hungry he drank five bottles of milk.
Ms Quinn returned home to find that her children were in care. She has strongly denied the allegations of some of her neighbours, and insisted that they were "well fed and clothed". She said that she was the victim of a hate campaign by neighbours.
She alleged that "somebody" had wrecked the house just before journalists and camera crews arrived and that it was always "spotless". She had only held "one quiet party" there since arriving.
She said the father of her children had left. She was struggling to bring them up alone. "I was finding it hard to cope but I was getting by until all this happened," she said.
Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Bobby Lavery, described it as a sad case. He appealed to neighbours to show compassion and understanding towards the mother, who "obviously has problems and needs help".
There was a 78 per cent unemployment rate and widespread poverty. It is particularly difficult when children are raising children."