Mum is jailed for beating her children with sticks

A MOTHER found guilty of cruelty to her two youngsters has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

The middle-aged woman denied wrongdoing but was convicted of beating her son and daughter after a trial.

Her husband was convicted of sexually abusing his eldest child and physically abusing his young son and was jailed for six years last month.

The dad told Bristol Crown Court he had never inappropriately touched his daughter in front of adult films, when his wife was out at work.

He also said evidence by two other youngsters, that they were beaten with sticks and not given food or allowed to use the bathroom in a rat-infested Bristol home, simply wasn't true.

The father, aged in his 50s, denied four indecent assaults and two indecency with a child charges relating to his daughter from his previous marriage.

He and his current middle-aged wife both denied cruelty to their two children.

He was convicted of all charges, barring cruelty to his younger daughter, and his wife was convicted of two counts of cruelty.

A jury watched a video of an interview the older daughter gave to police in which she said her father would wake her and take her downstairs, when her mum was working, and put on films with a violent or sexual content. She described how her dad would touch her improperly, and make her touch him improperly.

She said the touching was done over clothes.

Earlier the jury heard from the father's daughter from his second marriage, who said she had to live in a rat-infested home in south Bristol where her parents banned her from washing or using the toilet, didn't feed her and she was regularly beaten with a rusty nail-strewn plank.

She also told the jury her mum and dad threw weekend parties, attended by strangers getting drunk who would hit her with bottles.

His son said his parents would hit him with sticks.

The father denied all wrongdoing and the mother declined to give evidence.

Detective Sergeant Larisa Hunt said: "It was a gross breach of trust. The home environment was not one suitable for children."

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