Boy begged to stay to escape beatings, sister tells court

A nine-year-old boy begged his older sister to move in with her to escape his mother's beatings, a court has been told.

The sister was giving evidence at Dunedin District Court where her mother was facing assault charges.

Jurors wept during the first day of the trial on Monday as the boy described how he was abused by her.

The 41-year-old Invercargill woman is facing 14 counts of assault against her three children, aged three, nine and 12, that allegedly took place between April 2006 and March 2008.

The charges include assault with a weapon including a wooden spoon, jug cord, fibreglass tent pole, sandals or a belt.

The adult sister told the court yesterday her nine-year-old brother had begged her to let him live with her, promising to be good and wishing his mother would "die in a car accident", The Otago Daily Times reported.

The adult sister told the jury and Judge Stephen O'Driscoll she saw her mother "viciously" laying into two of her younger brothers with a belt.

"They (the children) were annoying each other, poking each other, jumping around. (They were) just being kids.

"She used to tell (one of the boys) that she hated him and that she was going to crack them. You don't tell a three-year-old that."

Earlier yesterday, the nine-year-old child told the court, via closed circuit television, how he would "run away screaming because it hurts" when he was hit, and that he and his brothers would hide when the jug cord came out.

The trial is expected to finish tomorrow.

- NZPA