A mother who poured a kettle of boiling water over her five-year-old son to get back at his father who had left her has been jailed for 10 years. The victim, now aged 17, suffered burns to more than 20% of his body. He told Cardiff Crown Court his mother called him to the kitchen and said "I'm sorry I've got to do this".
The 36-year-old woman insisted the incident was an accident and admitted lying at the time because she feared her son would be taken into care. The judge at Cardiff Crown Court told the 36-year-old, who cannot be named, that she had "failed her first and greatest responsibility as a parent". Judge Phillip Richards added the mother had become "the danger" to her son. "The first and greatest responsibility of a parent is to protect his or her child from danger," he said. "You not only failed to do that but you became the danger and you caused your son horrific injuries."
The victim had told the court that he was still full of rage over his mother's actions and wanted to make her pay. He said he did not tell anybody about the incident until the autumn of 2004, because she had told him she would kill herself if he did. The teenager said that on the day he was injured his mother had told him his father did not want to see him and did not love him. "She called me out the kitchen and said 'Sorry I've got to do this' and tips the kettle over my chest," he told the court. 'Appalling act' "She said, 'now your effing father will come and see you'." Before sentencing, Judge Richards was told that the mother, from Cardiff, had been before the court on five previous occasion for a total of 13 offences involving dishonesty. He told her: "There is no punishment that I can impose which will be as dreadful as the punishment you gave to your young son. "You built up a resentment for your position as being left as a single parent. "Your son's father did not turn up that day as intended and over the course of the day your resentment drove you to behave in a way in a way no mother should. "You entirely lost your patience with your son and carried out this appalling act of pouring boiling water over him. "You punished your child for wrongs you believed have been done to you by your former partner." The mother claimed she had boiled the kettle to pour on an ants' nest at her kitchen door and had spilled the water after bumping into him. She told the court she would never hurt her son to get back at his father.
But the jury rejected the explanation and delivered a unanimous guilty verdict of grievous bodily harm with intent in July. After the verdict, an impact statement was read out in court by prosecuting barrister Michael Mather-Lees. It explained how the incident had affected the victim's life and how he had even contemplated suicide. "I can't even begin to explain the pain I felt when this happened to me as a young innocent child," the statement said. "My memories are of the burning feeling, the pain on a scale of 10 was 10. "The pain was constant, all day, every day sitting there, crying because of the pain, it would never go away. "I have memories of my mother telling me she would kill herself if I ever told the truth and this made me feel scared that if she did kill herself it would be my fault. "My mother made me feel like a bad person. She would batter me and I would be too scared to say," it added. The teenager also described how unwilling he was to was to show his body and wore clothes to hide his scars. "I got my burns for nothing. I don't deserve to have these scars - I have been punished for nothing - because one woman never loved her son," he said.
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