Guilty of brutal child abuse

A chilling case of child abuse was brought to light yesterday when a couple was convicted of neglecting and hurting three children aged between one and five, hitting them with belts and burning them with cigarettes.

The children's 30-year-old mother was given a suspended jail term and her partner (who is not the father) was jailed for six months after admitting to slightly injuring them and neglecting them in 2002.

The three children, two boys and a girl were left with lice in their hair, covered in bruises and without food for three-day stretches.

The little one was just over one year old at the time and his brother was just under two-and-a-half. The oldest, the girl, was five.

The youngest boy had scratches and bruises all over his body and some wounds compatible with being hit by either a belt or a ruler.

After examining him closely, doctors found paper and rubbish stuck up his nose. Medical doctor Yurgen Abela, who was the first person to see the children in hospital after they were brought there by their grandmother and their mother's aunt, said the youngest child was frightened and yearned for the affection he never had as a child.

The boy's stepbrother had two cigarette burns, one on his right shoulder blade and the other on his left wrist and had wounds similar to those of his younger sibling.

Besides being very dirty, the girl told Dr Abela that her mother's partner would hit her for no reason on her arms and legs.

Dr Abela said that in his opinion this was a very clear-cut case of child abuse.

Social worker Marianne Gauci testified that the case first came to light following an anonymous phone call on the 179 helpline. The caller said the mother gave her children Valium and used to beat them.

An interim care order was issued and the children were taken to a home where they were cared for by nuns after the allegations were verified. A woman, who for some time lived with the couple, testified that the children would be left alone at home while the couple went to a local bar. She said she used to feel sorry for the children and asked a nurse that lived in the apartment above them to look after them.

The witness recounted one incident during which the youngest child, while playing on the parapet, ran away and was brought back by the police. The mother's partner hit the child to "teach him a lesson".

One other time, the mother crushed Valium tablets and then put them into the children's bottles to try and make them go to sleep. However, the pills had the opposite effect and the mother called her partner, who was at the local bar, to get help but he said he was not in the least bit interested because they were not his children.

The witness said she had found out from the girl that if she did not do her homework she was either not fed or was hit by her mother's boyfriend. She had seen the mother hitting the children various times and in one particular incident the mother even hit them with the high heel of her shoe.

In handing down judgment, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera took into consideration the man's seven previous convictions including theft, drug possession and possession of a weapon, for which he had received a probation, fines and suspended sentences.

Even the mother has a criminal record and in 1995 was convicted of loitering with the intent to prostitute herself and was placed under probation for three years.

The court noted that there should be two different punishments in this case in order to reflect the different criminal records of the accused.

The man was jailed for six months and the woman received a six-month jail term suspended for three years. The court also ordered that the woman be placed under supervision for three years.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Josè Herrera appeared for the woman.

Lawyer Malcolm Mifsud appeared for the man. Names are not being published in order to protect the children's identity.