Mother and her friend jailed for SELLOTAPING five-year-old son naked in a cupboard while they went to the seaside with his older sisters

• Boy left home alone for ten hours as mother and friend went to Blackpool 
• He was stripped and locked in darkened cupboard with just fruit and water
• Found in his own excrement when the family finally returned at 9.30pm
• Women worked at a school and were jailed for total of six and a half years 

A mother and her friend have been jailed for Sellotaping her five-year-old son naked in a cupboard while they went to the seaside with his older sisters

The terrified boy was left home alone for ten hours as his 40-year-old mother and her 29-year-old friend - who both worked at a school in Bradford, West Yorkshire - went to Blackpool, Lancashire.

He was stripped, locked in a darkened cupboard in an empty house with only fruit and water and was sickeningly found in his own excrement when the family finally returned at 9.30pm.

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Sent to prison: Both Muslim women showed no emotion as they were jailed - the mother (left) for two-and-half years and her friend (right) for four years - by a judge who criticised their ‘deliberate scapegoating’ of the boy

The youngster was also beaten around the head with a metal pole and hit with a stiletto shoe heel in a prolonged campaign of hatred towards him, Bradford Crown Court was told.

Both Muslim women showed no emotion as they were jailed - the mother for two-and-half years and her friend for four years - by a judge who criticised their ‘deliberate scapegoating’ of the boy.

The women, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the boy, became close friends after the mother’s abusive husband walked out of the marriage, leaving her to bring up three children alone.

Judge Peter Hunt said the friend’s relationship with the defenceless boy was ‘highly dysfunctional’ and he was in fear of her, adding: ‘You meted out punishment to him of a very cruel nature indeed.’

In April 2014 she attacked him with a metal pole, causing a deep gash to his chin and covering his arms and legs in bruises.

On another occasion she hit him on the head with a high-heeled shoe and caused a cut to his scalp which they glued together with superglue.

The judge said that when the family decided to go to Blackpool the friend ‘effectively imprisoned’ the boy in the cupboard.

‘You both went to the seaside for a day out leaving him stranded and helpless in a cupboard in an empty house - this was a wicked thing to have done,’ said the judge.

The boy was put in danger and in failing to intervene to protect her child the mother had been seriously derelict in her parental duties.

The court heard the single mother lived with the victim and his sisters, aged six and ten in a three-bedroom house. Her female friend was a regular visitor.

The older sister told the jury via video link that the three children shared a king sized bed and the empty cupboard was in the same room.

‘Every time [mum’s friend] came to the house my brother was put in the cupboard,’ said the schoolgirl.

He would be Sellotaped inside when they all went out to the shops. She said she was ‘scared’ for him when they went to Blackpool.

This was a wicked thing to have done

Judge Peter Hunt

‘First she told him to take his clothes off and then she put him in the cupboard,’ she said.

On another occasion after school the children were getting ready to go to mosque when the friend attacked the boy with a high heeled shoe.

‘He got a cut on his head, which started bleeding. The blood stopped when they put superglue on it,’ said his sister, who said the woman went to buy glue from the shop and stuck the wound together.

All the children are now living at their grandparents’ home.

 The boy’s mother, who was a teaching assistant, was found guilty of two offences of child cruelty, between August 2012 and April 2014.

Her friend, who was an IT technician, was convicted of two similar charges of child cruelty and two allegations of unlawfully wounding the child.

Barristers for both women said they had lost their good characters and their jobs as a result of their convictions, while the mother had 'lost everything', including her children and her family.

Outside court Detective Inspector Mick Ryan said: ‘These crimes were appalling and cruel and committed against an innocent young boy.

‘He had no means of defending himself from the people he knew and trusted. The family friend inflicted cruel punishment over a long period of time, and his mother who should have been there to protect him, failed and instead was complicit in his neglect.

‘The physical assaults he suffered are beyond comprehension and can only be described as barbaric and vile.’