PRISON terms passed on a couple who kept their five children in filthy, appalling conditions for years are to be challenged as too lenient in the Court of Appeal.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright has approved a prosecution appeal against the sentences received by the 41-year-old man and his 36-year-old wife at Gloucester Crown Court in May.

A jail term of two years was imposed on the man while his wife received two years and nine months.

The couple, from the Stroud area, had subjected their five children to “appalling neglect” which went on for five years despite welfare workers being aware of their plight.

The children, who were infested with lice and wore dirty clothes, “suffered terribly” at the hands of the married couple, said Judge Jamie Tabor QC when he sentenced them.

He described the parents as “inadequate, stupid, stubborn and incompetent”.

The court heard that the children, aged three to 14, were grubby and smelly and also had problems including malnutrition.

The judge said it was likely the children – who have now all been taken into care and are being adopted – would be scarred for life by the “abject failure and negligence of their parents”.

Last month the results of a serious case social services review into the case concluded that they should have been helped much sooner.

Gloucestershire County Council apologised for the neglect the children suffered.

The review found the family had been known to authorities for more than 16 years.

But it was only in November 2012 that the children were taken from the parents.

It was one of the worst cases of neglect ever seen in Gloucestershire.

Last week defence lawyers representing the parents confirmed that the sentences imposed on the couple had been considered to be unduly lenient.

The prosecution’s argument for longer terms will be presented at the Court of Appeal today.