Prison for mum who cut kids with glass and nails

A 30-year-old woman from western Stockholm charged with subjecting her three children to ‘torture-like abuse’ has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.

• Charges filed for torture- like parenting methods (26 Oct 09)
• Parents jailed for lashing 11-year-old son (14 Aug 09)
• Mother arrested for 'torture-like' abuse (22 Jun 09)

The woman was suspected of carrying out several types of gruesome acts against her young children, aged two, five, and seven respectively.

According to the indictment, the mother had stuck pieces of glass into the feet of her seven-year-old daughter and hit her five-year-old son with a broom. Both children had also been cut with nails.

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

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

“It doesn’t feel good in my heart. She’s not so nice, our mum; she doesn’t like us,” the seven-year-old girl told police, according to the Aftonbladet newspaper.

The children had previously been placed under state care, but the mother regained custody of them in May 2008 until her arrest in June.

The woman, who also operated a website offering advice on how to deal with cases of the “unjustified” placement of children in the custody of the state, denies the charges against her.

The district court in Solna outside of Stockholm nevertheless convicted her for gross violation of a person’s integrity (grov fridskränkning).

In addition to spending time in prison, the abusive mother was also ordered to pay each child 58,800 kronor ($8,300) in compensation.