Bite mother jailed

[24 September 2008]

A mother who bit her five-year old son on the arm after he hurt his eight-month old sister has been sent to prison for five months.

The boy's teachers reported the incident after they found two marks more than 3cm long on him. The 28-year old mother, who has not been named, said that she thought her son had injured her daughter after she heard crying in their Cheltenham home. She pleaded guilty to wilfully assaulting a child. In response to police asking her why she bit her son, she replied: "I don't know. Probably that he hurt his sister so he's got to be hurt. It's an automatic reaction to protect your youngest." The woman, who had hoped to be a counsellor, has now had her children taken into foster care.

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