It smelled like urine, nappies and toys were strewn across the floor and more than a dozen packets of ice blocks were piled up in the kitchen.
Welcome inside the putrid Adelaide family home where, until recently, two young girls were being raised by a single mother.
Daily Mail Australia has obtained a neighbour’s full video of the vile scene inside a three-bedroom home in the city’s north.
‘You have no idea of the smell, it hit you before you even reached the house,’ said Kristy-Lee Dixon.
‘It smelled like urine, that dank, musty smell.
‘It was horrible.’
THE KITCHEN: Packets of ice blocks and Lifesaver candy were piled on the floor while half-finished cartons of milk sat on the kitchen benchtop
The kitchen counter-tops were covered with shopping and garbage bags and a box of chocolate-coated ice cream bars
BEDROOM: A baby doll sits on its back atop a pile of clutter inside one of the brick home’s three bdrooms
CORRIDOR AND BATHROOM: The view when Ms Dixon walked into the home (left) and bathroom garbage (right)
The 34-year-old and her partner Michael Topley were visiting the woman’s house to pick up the $20 he was owed.
Ms Dixon did not know the woman well and was shocked to discover the ugly display inside.
‘There wasn’t a bed that wasn’t piled with garbage,’ Ms Dixon said.
She said the mother had just had a shower but the children looked dirty.
One child’s hair was so knotted it stood ’10cm off her head’, she claimed.
The kids’ skin had a ‘grey tinge’ to it.
Ms Dixon could be heard muttering ‘oh, Jesus’ as she filmed the inside of the house.
She headed home and called the Department of Child Protection. The kids were taken into care last Wednesday.
The three-bedroom home now resembles a garbage tip.
But old real estate photographs showed it was once a tidy little property with shiny kitchen counter tops and clean floors.
BEFORE THE FILTH: The home once had a tidy kitchen with shiny laminate benchtops
TIDY LIVING AREA: A look back in time to when this living area was considered habitable
FIT FOR A PRINCESS: One of the small bedrooms – before the floor was covered with filth
BILLIARD ROOM! The three bedder is now a far cry from its former splendour
Ms Dixon said she had copped a backlash since going public with her concerns.
‘It had been going on for months and months to get to where it was,’ she said.
‘Somebody had to have seen something’.
A South Australian Police spokesman has confirmed the mother, 32, faces charges.
‘A woman has been reported and two children have been removed from her care after their home was found to be in squalid condition last week.
‘Following inspection and investigation by police, including detectives and crime scene officers, the Department for Child Protection, the local council and other agencies, the children, both aged under 10, were removed and placed into care.’
The girls, who cannot be named to protect their identities, were picked up by the Department for Child Protection.
‘The 32-year-old mother was reported for two counts of failing to provide for the children and will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.