Sisters jailed for cruelty to children

Two sisters who won a community award worth £25,000 for a Walsall primary school have been jailed for four years each after admitting child cruelty and assaulting two children.

Coral Stringer, aged 49, and her sister, Lisa Stringer, 38, of Arundel Street, Walsall, carried out "systematic" abuse against the two children including slapping and punching for misdemeanours as slight as leaving a door shut or open.

One of the attacks was filmed on a mobile phone, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

Both sisters admitted two counts of actual bodily harm, for which they were sentenced to 18 months each and for each offence, and two counts of child cruelty, for which they were jailed for four years on one offence and three years on the other. All sentences will be served concurrently.

The sisters were awarded the £25,000, which went to Harden Primary School, in 2006 as part of a community awards scheme. They were granted the award after campaigning for financial help for the school. The abuse charges brought against them were in no way linked to the school.

Miss Sally Hancox, prosecuting,said the younger of the victims described how they had "suffered regular slapping, punching and hair pulling" at the hands of Coral and Lisa Stringer.

Miss Hancox said: "They were routinely punched by Coral. Lisa was described as someone who would back Coral up."

She went on to say Coral had a borderline personality disorder, and her temper would flare when she did not take her medication.

One of the attacks was filmed on a mobile phone and was played to the judge at a previous hearing, showing the victim screaming in pain.

Mr Anwar Ramzan, defending Lisa Stringer, said she had had a dysfunctional childhood herself.

Miss Wendy Miller, defending Coral Stringer, said she had suffered mental health problems since her mother's death in the 1990s.