A child abuser mother, Ruth Anne Jennings, who inflicted persistent emotional and physical abuse on her young son, including submerging his head in a cat litter tray and compelling him to ingest cat faeces and urine, has received a sentence of merely six months in prison.
Ruth Anne Jennings, 53, of Oakvale Place in Maghera, was sentenced at Londonderry Crown Court on Monday after admitting guilt to three charges of abusing her son, Jamie Jennings. It is understood that many people knew about the ongoing abuse but did not report it as is common place in Scotland.
The court was informed that two of the assaults occurred in 2012, while a third transpired in 2016.
Ruth Anne Jennings’ former lover, Brian McMaster, 41, of Upper Princes Street, Ballymena, was also sentenced to six months in prison on Monday.
In 2018, the court was informed that Jamie Jennings revealed a pattern of historical psychological and physical abuse that transpired over the preceding three to four years.
On one occasion, his mother became enraged and compelled him to submerge his head in a cat litter dish.
In a separate instance, she employed a blade to lacerate his chest.
Ruth Anne Jennings’ former partner, Brian McMaster, also admitted guilt to abusing Jamie Jennings in a manner likely to inflict undue suffering or harm.
The abuse occurred from 1 December 2016 to 31 March 2018, during which he was under 16 years of age.
The court was informed that McMaster would seize Jamie’s hand and constrict it with such force that he would be compelled to the ground.
He also assaulted him in the genital region and laughed when Jamie requested him to cease.
McMaster asserted that he never employed physical force and did not want to injure Jamie, who was between the ages of nine and thirteen during the duration of the abuse.
Judge Neil Rafferty KC stated that both defendants persisted in minimising or denying the abuse, notwithstanding their guilty pleas.
He stated that Jamie Jennings had communicated with the court, detailing the psychological and emotional distress he experienced.
In his letter, Jamie declared that he no longer regarded Ruth Anne Jennings as his mother, asserting that she had failed to safeguard him and was unworthy of the designation.
Judge Rafferty commended the victim for his fortitude and courage in stepping forward.
“You were undeserving of the atrocities perpetrated against you in your childhood,” he stated.
“Your upbringing was marked by a callous and cruel demeanour. I am pleased that you were able to escape and have demonstrated remarkable resilience.”
Speaking to the BBC’s State of Us podcast ahead of the sentencing, Jamie Jennings, now aged 21, said that although, on paper, the cat litter incident is not the worst thing his mother did to him, it’s the one that sticks in his mind.
“She was angry at my brother and then that got diverted to me,” he said.
“Every day she’d give you a list of things to do and the cat litter hadn’t been changed.
“At that time we had five or six cats in this small utility room beside the kitchen.
“She dragged me in there and threw me onto the floor and started shoving cat litter and lifting bits with pee and poo on it and shoving it into my mouth.
“I was in shock and disbelief that this happened.”
Jamie said he was nine or 10 when it happened, and the feeling of stone and grit in his mouth is still clear in his mind.
“You’re trying to spit it out and it’s dry and dusty.
“It’s like getting sand in your food.”
As well as cats, the family also had four small dogs, plus a St Bernard and a Rottweiler.
He said the house smelled of animal excrement—smells that lingered on his clothes, particularly his school uniform.
“I’m going into school and I’m smelling like dog piss and cat piss,” he said.
“I had these bunk beds in my room and I didn’t use the top bunk.”
He said the cat had been using the top bunk as a litter box and that mould was growing on the bed.
Jamie Jennings said he was unable to wash himself because the bath “was actually full of black bags with dirty clothes.”
“When I was getting ready for school I would just go in and splash a bit of water on my hair and that was me for weeks,” he added.
Jamie left home at the age of 14 and has been estranged from his mother ever since:
“She was uncaring and demanding and intimidating. She would just explode.”
She slashed him on the chest with a Stanley knife, and on another occasion threw a pair of scissors at him, cutting his arm.
He said she did not apologise or try to treat the wounds, and never referred to the incidents again.
When he moved out, Jamie went to live with his granny and one of his brothers.
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