UK: Girl starved, hit with hammer by mother, step-mother for stealing' food

London: Two women in UK are on trial for mistreating a girl, starving her and hitting her with a hammer for taking food from the kitchen when she was a teenager.

The abuse was so severe that it drove the then 16-year-old, daughter to one of the women, to attempt suicide, said a report in Daily Mirror. The victim, who is now 20 years old, said that her mother Deborah Harrison, 37, and step-mother Jennifer Harrison, 40, would make her sleep on the floor with dogs and punish her for not completing household chores on time.

Citing further cases of abuse, the girl said that when she was 14 years old, she was forced to overeat for several days because she came home and said she needed more sandwiches to take to school. They didn’t stop even when she expressed discomfort.

The women later told her to start cooking her own meals, but started taking away the food items from the kitchen and let her starve.

As a result, she would eat small portions of food, including sweets and hide the wrappers on top of a cupboard. She also hid a hammer there because she was afraid that they’d use it to beat her.

On July 10, 2013, when the women found out about the wrappers, they punished her for ‘stealing’ food. They attacked her with the hammer, first asking her to count the wrappers and then striking her 34 times.

The victim attempted suicide by consuming tablets from a medicine cabinet.