Bradford woman '˜locked boy of 5 in cupboard sealed with Sellotape'

The 29-year-old woman is accused of hitting the boy with a metal pole, and locking the boy in a cupboard sealed with Sellotape.

But giving evidence in her defence at Bradford Crown Court today, the woman - who cannot be named to protect the young boy’s identity - blamed his sister for the injuries found by doctors.

A jury previously heard that on April 28, 2014, the boy’s mother took him to hospital with a cut on his chin.

But an anesthetist spotted bruises on his arm, which in turn led to bruises on his back being discovered.

Prosecutor Ian Howard said: “It was at the hospital the anaesthetist spotted the marks on his arm and things unraveled.”

But the female defendant claimed it was the boy’s sister who inflicted the injuries.

The prosecutor later described the sister as ‘slight” and the woman replied: “She is not very big but she is strong.”

Mr Howard said: “So this deceptively strong girl hit her brother six times with an implement causing those injuries.”

The woman said: “I never hit him with anything.”

When Mr Howard asked the woman if she had hit the boy with a shoe, she told the jury: “I’ve never hit him with anything and a shoe is just out of the question.

The woman also to told the court that she didn’t know anything about the boy’s head being cut and the cut sealed with superglue.

She said her friend’s children made up the fact superglue was bought and used.

When Mr Howard asked the defendant: “We have also heard you locking him in a cupboard using Sellotape?”

She replied: “I said it never happened.”

Speaking about evidence heard on Thursday - in which the boy’s mood was seen to change when she picked him up from school - Mr Howard asked: “He is tentative in your presence isn’t he?”

The defendant replied: “That’s not correct.”

The prosecutor went on to suggest that the boy was tentative in her presence because she had beaten him “for whatever reason” and “on at least one occasion you have locked in a cupboard with Sellotape”.

She replied: “I don’t accept that.”

The jury heard earlier this week that the boy was allegedly stripped naked and left in a cupboard with the door Sellotaped shut for more than ten hours while his family went on a day trip to Blackpool, Lancs.

He was also Sellotaped into the cupboard while his 40-year-old mother and her friend went shopping, the prosecutor said.

He was allegedly beaten with a metal pole pole and hit with a stiletto which left his head gashed - so the women used Superglue to stick the wound together instead of taking him to hospital, a jury was told.

The boy’s mum and her female friend are on trial accused of child cruelty and neglect against the child between August 2012 and April 2014.

The 40-year-old mum denies two offences of child cruelty against her son, and the friend pleads not guilty to two charges of child cruelty and two allegations of unlawfully wounding the child.

The trial continues.