A British court has convicted a couple of violently abusing their children, as reported by BBC.
Lisa Pratt, 36, and Andrew Clent, 30, were both convicted of two counts of child cruelty, the British equivalent of child abuse, in mid-October. Last week, Pratt was sentenced to seven years behind bars and Clent was sentenced to four years.
Authorities argued the abuse, carried out between 2010 and 2015, was extreme. Prosecutor Jane Brady told the court that the couple’s children, who were not named, “were subjected to very cruel acts on a frequent, if not daily, basis.”
Pratt and Clent forced their children to participate in obscene “eating competitions,” which amounted to force feeding, with both winner and loser made to stand in a corner for hours on end, as reported by Oxford Mail.
The couple withheld bathroom privileges until the children soiled themselves and forced them to take scalding hot showers
Pratt once struck a child with a towel until “everything went black,” prosecutors argued. One child was held under water until nearly drowning to death.
When social workers came around, the children were told “if they didn’t put on a show of everything being fine they would be punished,” according to Brady. One of the victims spoke to the court about the years of daily abuse.
“It made me feel really sad and upset and at nighttime I would cry. I never told anyone because I was too scared.”
Judge Zoe Smith called the abuse “abominable and sadistic” at the sentencing hearing.
Pratt was considered to have participated in more abuse and was given a lengthier sentence. She reportedly cried as she received word that she would be spending the next seven years in jail.
‘Sadistic’ parents force feed children, shove them in scalding hot showers and hold them underwater until near-drowning: Police
Lisa Pratt, 36, and Andrew Clent, 30, were both convicted of two counts of child cruelty, the British equivalent of child abuse, in mid-October. Last week, Pratt was sentenced to seven years behind bars and Clent was sentenced to four years.
Authorities argued the abuse, carried out between 2010 and 2015, was extreme. Prosecutor Jane Brady told the court that the couple’s children, who were not named, “were subjected to very cruel acts on a frequent, if not daily, basis.”
Pratt and Clent forced their children to participate in obscene “eating competitions,” which amounted to force feeding, with both winner and loser made to stand in a corner for hours on end, as reported by Oxford Mail.
The couple withheld bathroom privileges until the children soiled themselves and forced them to take scalding hot showers
Pratt once struck a child with a towel until “everything went black,” prosecutors argued. One child was held under water until nearly drowning to death.
When social workers came around, the children were told “if they didn’t put on a show of everything being fine they would be punished,” according to Brady. One of the victims spoke to the court about the years of daily abuse.
“It made me feel really sad and upset and at nighttime I would cry. I never told anyone because I was too scared.”
Judge Zoe Smith called the abuse “abominable and sadistic” at the sentencing hearing.
Pratt was considered to have participated in more abuse and was given a lengthier sentence. She reportedly cried as she received word that she would be spending the next seven years in jail.
‘Sadistic’ parents force feed children, shove them in scalding hot showers and hold them underwater until near-drowning: Police
