A Five-Year-Old Was Boy Locked In A Cupboard For 10 Hours

Five-Year-Old Boy Was Allegedly Beaten, Stripped And Locked In A Cupboard For 10 Hours

His mother and her female friend are on trial for cruelty and neglect

A Court has heard how a six-year-old girl watched on as her mother’s friend beat her brother with a metal stick before stripping him naked and locking him in a cupboard.

“He was hit four times on his back and then whacked and whacked and whacked,” she told the court as she clutched a soft toy, according to The Telegraph and Argus.

“He whispers in the cupboard. He stays in there until she goes home,” the little girl added.

The children’s 40-year-old mother and her female friend, in her late 20s, are currently on trial for child cruelty and neglect against the little boy. Both women deny the charges.

Police were first alerted to the case in 2014 when the boy was admitted to hospital with wounds that doctors suspected implied abuse.

Another sister told the court how the woman would make them strip him naked before she would put him in the cupboard, and that he would stay in there from “day to night”.

She recalled one occasion where the rest of the family went out and left him in there, naked and with chocolate, oranges, sweets and water from 11am to 9:30pm.

She also detailed how the woman reportedly beat the boy with the metal stick until he bled, as well as a pair of black high heels on another occasion.

“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.

When he bled they allegedly attempted to fix the wound with superglue, before finally taking him to hospital, where they lied about how he got the cuts.

The court also heard how the by was referred to Social Services three times by his nursery school, with 15 injuries logged in their records, but nothing was done.

A staff member from the school said that the child’s mother would tell the school he had fallen over or that one of his sisters had assaulted him, reports The Telegraph and Argus.

Both woman are pleading not guilty to the charges, and the trial is expected to continue until next week.