A 28-year old woman, who subjected two children to years of "appalling" neglect and cruelty, has been jailed for 12 months.

She pleaded guilty to wilfully ill-treating, neglecting and abandoning the children between 1998 and 2005 at a previous hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The court heard the woman had admitted failing to provide adequate supervision, food or clothing for the youngsters.

She allowed them to spend long periods outside unsupervised, exposed them to controlled drugs and violence and failed to provide proper medical and dental care.

The children involved, an 11-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother, are in foster care.

The court had heard that neighbours often found the children wandering the streets late at night and had twice fed them when they complained of being hungry.

On one occasion, the boy was found lying outside on a grass verge, soaked in his own urine.

He had eight teeth removed when he was four because he had been fed too many sweets and both children had been sexually abused by a relative, who had been prosecuted at the High Court.

Sentencing on the woman, a first offender who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been deferred until Tuesday to allow for background reports.

Defence agent, Simon Collins told the court the the woman had become addicted to heroin and had not been able to cope in a very difficult situation. He said: "I think drugs have played a significant part."

He also suggested the woman could be bailed to allow for a Drug treatment and Testing Order assessment. 

However, he added that the woman had been in custody since September, having gone into hiding and twice failing to appear in court.

Sheriff Isabella McColl told her the "extreme level of neglect and abandonment" meant there was no alternative to a custodial sentence. She then sentenced the woman to 12 months behind bars.