A Christian mother of 9 punishes her children for their sins by holding them bricks above their heads and eating garbage from the kitchen sink.
A 52-year-old woman whose identity cannot be revealed for valid reasons did not show any emotion as she was convicted in the Auckland district court for exploiting her children for 17 years.
Some of the children were as young as 5 when they experienced long and brutal punishment.
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The punishment involved is being refused food, signs that read ‘liar,’ and being immersed in a swimming pool in winter.
They were also made to run about an 800m circuit – sometimes running without clothes – for hours until they vomited or got unconscious. Their sins were usually as simple as dropping something on the floor.
Throughout the trial, 6 of the children gave evidence, telling the trauma they still experience as a consequence of the abuse.
The exploitation only revealed in 2017 when the 5 eldest children had moved out of the house.
The woman had declared not guilty to the charges but replaced her plea halfway through the trial after her children started to give evidence.
Her lawyer, Phil Hamlin, said to the court the children were his client’s focus, and she had attempted to do right by them.
Judge Nevin Dawson told that the woman’s cruelty to her children could not be cleared, and she used her ‘conservative Christian lifestyle’ to violate the trust of her children.
The mother has been confined to 4 years in prison for 6 counts of cruelty to children and 2 counts of assault on a child, one of which was the spokesperson.
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