A mother was charged yesterday with abandoning her three-year-old child in an unlocked home with only a television for company.

Hours later the child was found wandering in a Southampton street by neighbours.

The mother, who we have chosen not to name in order to protect the identity of the child, pleaded not guilty to wilfully abandoning or neglecting a child.

According to Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney, the woman left her child at around 10 p.m. on May 9 to visit a friend. When she left the home, the television was on and the front door was shut, but not locked.

Sometime in the morning of May 10, a neighbour found the child walking alone on a Southampton road.

The child is now said to be in the care of its grandmother.

Magistrate Juan Wolffe released the defendant on $2,000 bail with a surety of a like amount and ordered her to return to court on December 21 for trial.