Jenifer Loweth

(Bradford, England) Telegraph & Argus

BRADFORD, England—A child of six has told how she saw her little brother "whacked and whacked and whacked" with a metal stick while their mother watched.

The girl stretched her arms wide to show the length of the stick she says was used to beat the five-year-old boy until he cried and bled.

"He was hit four times on his back and then whacked and whacked and whacked," she said.

The child told the jury at Bradford Crown Court today that her mother's friend beat her brother and shut him in a cupboard.

The woman put Superglue on the boy's head to "stick the hair back down" after she had struck him and taped up the cupboard "to make sure he can't get out."

"He whispers in the cupboard. He stays in there until she goes home," the girl said.

Mother denies cruelty

The children's mother and her female friend are on trial denying 21 months of cruelty and neglect against the little boy.

Their 40-year-old mother, from Bradford, denies two offenses of child cruelty against her son, between August, 2012, and April, 2014.

Her friend, in her late 20s and also from Bradford, pleads not guilty to two similar charges of child cruelty and two allegations of unlawfully wounding the child.

The women, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, were arrested in 2014 after doctors at Bradford Royal Infirmary suspected that a cut to his chin and weals on his back and arm were non-accidental.

The boy's six-year-old sister clutched a soft toy as she told Emma Downing, barrister for her mother, that her auntie and grandma did not like mummy's friend "because she hits children."

Her older sister told the police the boy was shut in a wooden cupboard with drawings and stickers on it.

Her mother's friend put him in there when she visited the house.

"First she told us to take his clothes off and then she would put him in the cupboard," she said.

He was in "day to night."

Stick used in abuse, sister says

She also described seeing the boy beaten with a stick by her mother's friend.

"She got him out of the cupboard and he was naked and she got tissue paper and wrapped it round the stick. It was metal and silver and small. She put the tissue where she put her hand. First she hit him on the leg and then she hit him on the arm, and then she hit him on his face. He started bleeding from his chin," she said.

The girl said drawers were put in front of the cupboard to stop him getting out. Her brother was also struck on the head with a black high-heeled shoe by her mother's friend, she alleged.

"She got him to lie down and she hit him on the head and it started bleeding," the girl said.

"They took him upstairs and she got Superglue and put some on."

She told how the family and mum's friend went to Blackpool one day while the boy was shut in the cupboard.

They were gone from 11am until 9.30pm while he was left naked with chocolate, oranges, sweets and water.

She said the woman told her mother to lie to the hospital about the cut on the boy's chin.

She was to say he fell over a bag while playing with a toy airplane and hit his face on a coat hanger.

The girl said her mother could not have got the boy out of the cupboard because her friend would have shouted at her.

Boy allegedly left in cupboard for 10 hours

Evidence was heard yesterday of how the boy was imprisoned in a cupboard for more than ten hours while his family went on a day trip to Blackpool.

The five-year-old was stripped naked and left with chocolate and sweets before the door was sealed shut with Sellotape, it is alleged.

The boy was also taped in the cupboard when they went shopping, beaten with a metal pole and struck over the head with a stiletto heel, prosecutor Ian Howard told the court during the outline of the case.

When his head was gashed by the blow from the shoe, the women bought Superglue to stick the wound together instead of taking him to hospital, his sisters told the police.

Howard said the women were arrested after doctors at Bradford Royal Infirmary suspected that a cut to his chin and weals on his back and arm were non-accidental.

The boy’s mother had taken him to the hospital on April 27, 2014, saying he had hurt his chin by falling over a coat hanger at home.

Both women gave no comment in interviews when questioned by the police.

The boy told a specially trained safeguarding officer that his mother’s friend got a stick from under the bed, wrapped it in tissue and hit him.

“Being hit with a stick made him sad and he cried,” he said.

His mother put a sticking plaster on to his chin but it would not stop bleeding and he had to be taken to hospital.

One of his sisters told the police she saw her mother’s friend hit her brother up to ten times with part of a metal rack.

She would also tape him in a cupboard to stop him getting out, the girl alleged.

He was shut in with his toys and she could hear him whispering, she said.

Both girls said the boy’s head wound had been stuck with Superglue by the women.

The second sister said he was made to take off his clothes and get into the cupboard.

She claimed he was shut in between 11 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on one occasion when the rest of the family went to Blackpool.

He was naked and left with sweets and chocolates, she said.

The jury will hear from staff at the boy’s school who allegedly noticed his injuries.

The trial, which is expected to last into next week, continues.

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