Northumberland woman guilty of cruelty to children

Jul 4 2009 by Rob Kennedy, The Journal

TWO needy children were left living in fear when the new mum who adopted them flared into a rage and was guilty of cruelty.

When the boy and girl were adopted by the 48-year-old they thought they were set for a better life.

But she couldn’t cope with them and made their life a misery, a court heard.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, slapped one of them, pushed the other into the bath while fully-clothed, caused them suffering by washing their hair too vigorously and even threatened to throw one of them out of a window.

At Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Michael Cartlidge said: “The defendant must face the fact she made two little children’s lives miserable when she should not have done.

“This is not a case where she embarked on a programme of evil conduct towards the children but was overwhelmed by the task she had been given.

“What she did that was completely unacceptable was to treat them in a way that was not caring or motherly.

“But the prosecution case is not that this lady is cruelly sadistic, she was a hapless lady operating in difficult circumstances.”