Boy doesn’t want to live with mom after beating

The 12-year-old boy who was recently hospitalized after being beaten by his mother, and who ran to the police station for refuge, apparently no longer wants to live with her.

The mother, who pleaded guilty to two counts of assault of a minor, committed on February 11 and 12, was remanded for two weeks pending her sentencing on Monday, February 24.

Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett had ordered a social inquiry report and an updated medical report to be done.

Case worker Sandra Augustus conducted the social inquiry report and in her interview of the mother, she told the state that she misses her son because “he is the only child around her” of her six children who have six different fathers.

However, the court was also privy to pictures of the 12 year old’s back after the beatings, and there could be seen at least five wales, with distinct lines of a belt, redness and swelling. One of the areas had a bleeding cut on it.

The magistrate asked prosecutor Corlene Samuel to read a particular area of the report from a case worker at hospital.

“It is of concern to me because the child gave his opinion…” Burnett stated.

“The child himself you know, he has given his opinion as to whether or not he wants to go back to meet her,” the magistrate indicated.

Addressing the 40 year old mother he asked, “Let me ask you something – you think this child want to come back to meet you?”

She answered, “Yes please.”

“You think so?,” the magistrate stated, “You think he wants to come back to be with you?”

Again the mother replied yes.

“You think so?,” Burnett asked her again emphatically. The mother said yes, because “That’s the onliest one.”

The magistrate said he said enough for her to read between the lines.

In reading a social inquiry report to the court, Augustus revealed that the mother said she “absolutely regret because she is in prison and is unhappy.”

“She regrets what she did to her son and every night she cannot sleep, all she does is cry,” Augustus said.

Recalling February 12, when she chased her son into the Layou police station, the defendant told the social worker that she had asked her son at their home if he had eaten lunch, and he told her he had. However, when she went to the bedroom to fetch a slipper, she saw a piece of bread behind a suitcase. She took the bread up, went outside to sit on a chair, and wait, with a leather belt, for her son to come back inside from the pipe.

She asked him why he had lied to her, and told her he ate his lunch. Putting him to kneel, she began beating him across his back.

Her son ran away, and although she told him to stop and not to make her “vex” he continued running adjacent to the back of the police station in Layou. He ran into the station. Like the prosecution had stated, the mother admitted to pushing away a female Corporal to get to her son. She said another officer told her “if she bright” to come in there and continue beating him (the 12-year-old). She advanced towards her son nonetheless, and continued beating him. She was then arrested.

The social inquiry report did not speak about the first incident which occurred on February 11, but the court had heard that this happened after the 12-year-old returned from school. When he was putting up the wet clothes on the line, his mother took a stick and beat him with it until it broke. She then continued beating him with her hands around his neck and shoulders.

The boy has only been living with her for a few months.

The social inquiry report revealed that his grandparents do not want to care for the child, who is currently in the care of the state at the Liberty Lodge Training Centre, because he is said to steal and other things.

“Yeah this is a child that did not receive the best from his parents. I’m afraid that’s what it is…” the magistrate, privy to further information, stated.

The boy’s grandmother had told the social workers that her daughter was very quiet and mannerly when she was young.

“She further stated that (the defendant) is a friendly person but since she became an adult she has been making bad choices with men,” and this has caused her to act out “by drinking and having nice time.”

The defendant had previously told the magistrate that she doesn’t drink, and so he asked her about this.

“It’s like beer and Guinness,” the mother responded dismissively.

“Yeah but if you drink four, five drinks they can do something to you and make you behave in a particular way,” Burnett told her.

At the end of her letter the social worker opined, “(the mother) has expressed remorse, she is quite cognizant of the severity of the crime committed. Therefore, it appears that her previous conviction has not served as deterrent for her behaviour.”

The defendant had been convicted twice for wounding in the past, and once for indecent language.

Burnett asked Augustus what she believed the court should do. She recommended counselling.

“After she completes the counselling session then we can monitor and find out if she indeed would be competent to care for the child,” Augustus stated.

After hearing how long would be needed, the magistrate ordered three months counselling for the mother, and a report to be given on May 29.

The prosecutor wondered if this was the only sentence, and the magistrate stated that she was someone who needed help.

“I don’t want to repeat what’s in the report but that has been her life you know. A life of abuse, she’s just passing on what she knew or what she knows…Sad but that’s the reality,” he commented.