A Texas judge has sentenced a mother who superglued her toddler's hands to a wall to 99 years in prison, local media reported.
During the September 2011 assault on her two-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Escalona also beat the girl into a coma, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The 23-year-old mother of five had pleaded guilty in July to felony injury to a child.
"I hit her, I kicked her constantly, and she didn't deserve that," the newspaper's crime blog quoted Escalona as saying in court last week. "Only a monster does that."
According to the blog, the abuse -- which resulted in bleeding of the girl's brain -- appeared to be over potty training.
Before handing down the sentence, Judge Larry Mitchell said Escalona needed to be punished for savagely beating her child "to the edge of death."
The daughter survived and, according to testimony referenced by the blog, is doing well.
The Los Angeles Times website quoted Debbie Denmon, spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney's office, as saying Escalona "wasn't sorry for what she did. She was sorry for herself, not the child she tortured."
Escalona will have to serve 30 years before she becomes eligible for parole, Denmon told The Times.
Australians concerned about suspected child abuse or neglect can make a report by phoning the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111.
Leave a comment