THE tearful mum of a boy, 6, who was allegedly tortured to death by his stepdad admitted to abusing her son for years.

Zymere Perkins, 6, died in his mum Geraldine Perkins' filthy maggot-ridden Harlem apartment, where she repeatedly whipped her son with a belt to avoid bruising her hands.

5 Geraldine Perkins admitted to whipping her son with a belt for years before his death Credit: New York Post

5 Little Zymere was allegedly tortured to death by his mum's boyfriend Credit: Facebook

Geraldine Perkins, 29, testified in Manhattan Supreme Court in the trial of her former lover, Rysheim Smith, who faces second-degree murder charges in the death of Zymere Perkins.

The six-year-old died after he was allegedly beaten by Smith with a broomstick before being hung over the back of a door by his shirt.

Perkins was also complicit in the abuse, admitting to the court that she used a belt to discipline her son because her "hands weren't healthy" from Lupus, an autoimmune disease which left her skin severely irritated.

I didn't know how to raise him. I didn't know what I was doing Geraldine Perkins

In her tearful testimony, Perkins told jurors that she struggled to raise her young son, as she was kicked out of her grandmother's home for beating Zymere and was then forced to live in homeless shelters.

She said: "It was hard. I mean, I'm a single parent. I'm a new parent.

"I didn't know how to raise him. I didn't know what I was doing."

Perkins said she didn't "pick up" much from the mandatory parenting lessons held at the homeless shelter.

In the months leading up to his death, she said Zymere slept in a makeshift bed in the apartment, where flies had laid eggs in the faecal matter embedded in the carpet.

Zymere suffered from bed-wetting and other trauma-related issues resulting in the incident, which allegedly enraged Smith.

"He picked up Zymere, held him by the arm and began to beat him with a stick like a piñata," Assistant District Attorney Kerry O’Connell told the court during opening arguments.

She described in horrifying detail how Smith is believed to have "waterboarded him in the shower," and bludgeoned Zymere with the shower rod.



HORROR ABUSE

Waterboarding is a torture technique that simulates drowning by pouring water over the face, making it difficult to breathe.

Zymere lost consciousness and collapsed in the bathtub, before he was allegedly hung on the back of the bathroom door by his t-shirt.

"This child had more fractures than he had ribs," O'Connell added, stating that Zymere had been starved and forced to take cold showers.

She added: "Tellingly, he did not call out to his mother...because he knew his mother was not going to protect him."

Perkins reportedly claimed that Zymere had fallen out of his bed when she brought him to the hospital after Smith's horrific beating.

He could have been dead for up to 17 hours before Perkins brought him in, a report from the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (CFS) found.

Perkins has been in custody for three years after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter in 2017.

Smith - who pleaded not guilty - is charged with the six-year-old's murder.

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On Monday, Zymere's former kindergarten teacher, Josefina Gutierrez, testified that she stopped calling the boy's home to report misbehaviours because she was afraid it would lead to beatings.

Gutierrez told the jury: "I was afraid that every time I complained, [his mother] got upset and that was the reason that he came back with bruises."

5 Ryshiem Smith, 45, is charged with killing little Zymere Credit: Daniel William McKnight

5 Geraldine Perkins, 28, has been in custody for three years Credit: Daniel William McKnight

5 Perkins pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in 2017 Credit: Facebook / Geraldine Perkins

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