Mother arrested for 'torture-like' abuse

A woman in her thirties has been remanded into custody on suspicions of abusing her three small children under torture-like conditions.

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The woman, who is unemployed and lives in a Stockholm suburb, was arrested a week ago, the Metro newspaper reports.

“It’s an extremely senisitive matter and because the police investigation is ongoing I’m not commenting on anything,” a representative in the local neigbourhood council (stadsdelsnämnden) told Metro.

When authorities took her three children into custody, they were dirty, hungry and covered with scabs and bruises.

The mother is suspected of both hitting the children, ages two, five, and seven-years-old, and cutting them with pieces of glass and nails.

In interviews with police, the children said their mother kept them locked in their apartment depriving them of contact with the outside world.

The children had previously been placed under state care, but the mother regained custody of them in May of last year.

While there is no evidence of drug abuse by the mother, she reportedly operates a website offering advice on how to deal with social services, including cases of the “unjustified” placement of children in the custody of the state.