A HORRENDOUS catalogue of abuse suffered by a Hampshire boy at the hands of his own mother can today be revealed by the Daily Echo.

The youngster, now aged 14, was routinely beaten with a slipper from the age of six, slapped around the head and on one occasion headbutted with such force that it left him with two black eyes and a bloody nose.

He was even locked in his bedroom at night with just a bucket for a toilet.

The shocking story of the boy's childhood was heard at Southampton Crown Court where his mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for what a judge described as a "catalogue of abuse and violence" towards her son that lasted for more than four years.

Prosecutor Matthew Jewell explained how the cruelty dated back to when the boy was six and his mother used to hit him on his backside with a slipper.

In a statement to police the boy, who lived on a Southampton housing estate, revealed how his mother progressed to slapping him around the head and face as punishment for his bad behaviour as he grew up.

Mr Jewell also told the court how, on one occasion the woman headbutted the boy when she had been drinking.

He said: "The boy told police how his mother punched him several times before climbing on top of him and headbutting him.

"That incident left him with bruising, two black eyes and a bloody nose."

In a separate incident he described how she smashed up his room after chasing him with a rolling pin.

"She had got it into her head that he was about to be expelled from school.

"She got a rolling pin and pursued him upstairs into his room where she began to hit the shelves, basically trashing his bedroom," Mr Jewell told the court.

He also explained how during the summer of last year the boy was locked in his room at night with only a bucket to use as a toilet and was forced to knock on the door to ask for food and drink.

The mother-of-two also admitted assaulting her eight-year-old daughter by pushing her causing her to fall and hit her head on the fridge.

The abuse came to light after Southampton City Council social services received a call in March from a concerned member of the public and after interviewing the children decided to call in the police.

A spokesman for the council said: "We undertook an initial investigation which involved talking to family members and other agencies. We were concerned that some abuse had taken place and we made the referral to the police. When the mother was arrested the children were immediately removed from her care and placed with extended family members.

"We always work our hardest to ensure that the welfare of the child is paramount in any case we investigate."

The woman's barrister, in mitigation, said: "It was not born out of malice, spite or sheer bad temper but the fact she felt she was unable to cope.

"She accepts she went beyond the acceptable level of chastisement."

But in jailing the woman judge John Boggis QC said: "This was a catalogue of abuse and violence towards your children.

"I well understand that children can try the patients of parents but discipline that crosses the line of loving parentally and criminal acts are simply not acceptable."