A mother from hell who subjected one of her daughters to horrendous abuse from the day she was born has been jailed for almost three years.
The mum, who cannot be named to protect the identities of her children, also admitted carrying out violent attacks on her second daughter when she was aged from five to 11.
They included threatening her with a knife and, on one occasion, telling her she was going to “kill her in her sleep” and that she should “sleep with one eye open”.
That caused the girl to try to stay awake through the night for days in case her mother came back.
The girls were eventually removed from their mother’s care and they had no contact until the woman got hold of the eldest girl’s email address in 2016 and began bombarding her with emails before moving on to text the other girl over and over.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told the messages contained threats, disparaging comments about the girls’ appearance, and “graphic” descriptions of sex with her partner, of his genitalia and her own private parts.
The woman later went on to text her younger daughter stating: “I hope your father rapes you.”
A sheriff told her she had carried out an “exceptionally extended and inexcusable history of child abuse” and jailed her for 35 months.
Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The first complainer recalls being physically abused from an early age.
“The accused would regularly say she wished she had never had the girl, that she was a mistake and she wished she was dead.
“The abuse later got worse and would happen on a daily basis.
“She didn’t disclose it as she was scared until an incident when she was 13 when the accused was repeatedly asking her if she or her sister looked better in her wedding photos.
“She said the accused did but must have said it in the wrong tone as she lost the plot and punched and kicked the girl leaving bruises she couldn’t hide.
“The second girl remembers being abuse from five years old.
“The accused would pull her hair while brushing it with force.
“In one incident the accused held up a kitchen knife and said ‘you know what I could do with this – I could kill you’.
“She thought she was going to kill her so locked herself in her room.
“On another the accused told her she was going to kill her while she slept and she better sleep with one eye open.
“She tried to force herself to stay awake through the night from then, leaving her tired and affecting her schoolwork.
“There was no contact after they went to live with their grandmother until 2016 when the accused was emailing their grandmother.
“The eldest girl got the accused’s email address and told her to leave her alone.
“The accused responded and send a large number of emails – some abusive, some small talk.”
The fiscal then detailed a lengthy email trail in which the woman would send strings of emails that went unanswered – including abuse about the girls’ physical appearance, their sexual histories and graphic sexual content.
The prosecutor said: “The Crown submission is that there is a significant sexual element to this case.”
The woman, 49, of Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to two charges of assault to injury committed between October 1988 and July 2008, and two of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner committed between May and November 2016.
The first date given in the charge against the woman was the day of her eldest daughter’s birth and she admitted assaulting her “between birth and 13 years” of age.
Defence advocate Johnathan Crowe said: “She was using alcohol as a coping mechanism to deal with her problem with anxiety and was consuming one-and-a-half bottles of wine a day to somehow help the situation when that has completely exacerbated matters.
“She now accepts full responsibility for the commission of these crimes.
“She demonstrates victim empathy, she acknowledges the hurt she has caused her daughters and the sadness she has created within the family.
“She wishes to turn back the clock, she knows she can’t.
“She has found custody difficult, she has been bullied, verbally and physically abused by fellow inmates.
“She is someone who has lost everything in life and indeed she has.
“She has lost her children, lost her previous husband and lost her liberty.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed the woman for 35 months.
He said: “You pled guilty to assaulting your daughters in turn for periods of 12 years and six years respectively.
“They were at that time, children. You slapped, punched and kicked them both.
“You pushed one of your daughters downstairs and threatened her with a knife, causing her such anxiety that she avoided sleeping so you could not stab her in her sleep.
“Although I accept in your favour that you were a young mother with inadequate support, this developed into an exceptionally extended and inexcusable history of child abuse.
“There can be no correlation between the years of abuse and any sentence I can impose but at least I can mark the disapproval of society and this court and give your victims some comfort but they may well feel the sentence I impose is too little.”
