A mother and her teenage lover allegedly brutally assaulted her four children, leaving one baby crippled for life, a court heard.
The 29-year-old Bahraini woman appeared at the High Criminal Court yesterday where she denied assault and causing a permanent disability.
Her 18-year-old boyfriend, who the court heard provided free food to her children following their father’s death, is alleged to have tortured them too. He also denies the charges.
The defendants are accused of having regularly viciously beaten four children – two boys and two girls – whose ages range from 10 months to six years.
They are said to have nearly killed the 10-month-old boy on June 14 after the male defendant spun the child in the air hitting his head twice because the child would not stop crying.
The baby was then taken to a private hospital in Manama with fractures to his head, hands and chest before being put on life support. A medical report said that it was a ‘miracle’ that he survived.
“The victim was brought to the hospital in a terrible state and he was hardly breathing,” read a medical report which was attached to court documents. “He suffered spasm attacks and had bruises all over his body.”
Medics fear that the infant will likely be crippled for life, the court was told. “He was kept on life support and was between life and death,” added the report. “He was tortured with a solid object and had been beaten several times.
“It is a miracle that he is still alive following the vicious attacks. However, he will remain crippled for life.”
The defendants pinned the blame on each other, while the mother insisted that her co-defendant attacked her baby because he was crying.
“He would come to our house to give us free meals because he works at a charity society,” the mother said in her statement to prosecutors. “On the day of the incident he was playing with my son.
“He was spinning him in the air before he hit his head twice because my son was crying. I then kicked him (co-defendant) out of our house.
“I was in a relationship with him for six months and did not expect him to do this.”
Her six-year-old son described the horrors of how his mother and boyfriend, who he called ‘uncle’, would torture him and his siblings on a daily basis.
“Our hands and legs would break from the beating we took from my mother and ‘uncle’,” the six-year-old told prosecutors during an emotional recounting of his ordeal.
“My mother and her friend would hit us with wires, slippers and solid objects.
“I told him many times ‘don’t hit us’ but he would not listen.
“The last time my little brother fainted from the beating and they took him to hospital.”
The trial has been adjourned until Sunday for prosecution witnesses to take to the stand.
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