Jail for sadistic mother who made abused girls drink from toilet bowl
A cruel mother who subjected three girls to 16 years of abuse has been jailed.
Caroline Sharp, 65, “abused, humiliated, belittled and neglected” her daughter and two step-daughters, leaving one of them so thirsty she had to drink from a toilet.
The sadistic mother treated the girls as “slaves” and subjected them to “truly the childhood of nightmares”, a court heard.
Sharp became involved with her step-daughters after the girls’ mother died in 1973. Despite the abuse being carried out between June 1975 and June 1991, her crimes were only revealed when one of her step-daughters went to police in 2015.
Gordon Stables, prosecuting, said: “She was so hungry she would pinch food from the cupboards but, when this was discovered, she would be hit by Sharp. She was constantly hungry.”
Mr Stables said the two step-daughters were afraid to ask for food. He added they would go to school hungry and forced to eat cold congealed porridge from breakfast when they returned home.
Mr Stables said: “They would often not be fed between Friday teatime and pack-up on Monday at school.”
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One of the step-daughters said she was forced to drink from the toilet bowl on one occasion because Sharp didn’t allow her to have drinks.
She was also not allowed to have a bath for days or weeks on end, was prevented from using a toothbrush, and on one occasion was prevented from bathing for six weeks.
The prosecutor added that when she started her period she was banned from using sanitary products and had to resort to using toilet roll or newspaper.
The other step-daughter said she had “no memory of nice times when she was growing up” and was “smacked and starved” by Sharp during her childhood.
She said her and her sister were “tramps” and “a mess” during their time living with Sharp. She added she had nits all the time and was also mentally abused by her step-mother.
The two girls were made to spend hours working in the garden and also had to do housework.
Sharp’s own daughter said she too also suffered an “abusive childhood” where she witnessed her mother treat the other girls as slaves and “the lowest of the low”.
She said she was also treated like a slave and remembered feeling hungry all the time. She added that she was force-fed egg sandwiches and fatty mince, which made her sick – something Sharp found amusing.
Mr Stables said: “She was purposely dressed unfashionably, was given the opposite of what everyone else had and was belittled.”
When Sharp was arrested she told police: “I know I’m not a nice person. If I could turn back the clock, I would love them. I’m very, very sorry. I’m not proud of it.”
Sharp, from Brigg, North Lincolnshire, admitted three offences of child cruelty between June 1975 and June 1991.
Robert Underwood, for Sharp, said: “The past has caught up with her. She is full of remorse. The legacy of what occurred has had an effect upon these women. She feels humiliated. She can’t turn the clock back. She wishes she could.”
Jailing Sharp for two years at Grimsby Crown Court, Judge Paul Watson QC, said: “This was truly the childhood of nightmares. At your hands, they were abused, humiliated, belittled and neglected. They were starved of the parental care and affection to which they were entitled.”
Judge Watson added: “These children were, in fact, used by you as slaves with no care or affection to be shown to them throughout their childhood.
“The effects upon each of them are lasting and profound. Each of them has been left with long-lasting and serious difficulties which they are struggling to deal with. Each girl is going to need therapeutic counselling for years to come.”
Sharp’s three victims were in tears in the public gallery as she was lead down to the cells to start her sentence, with one saying she and the other two women were “on a high” after the jailing.
She said: “We have been on this most difficult and emotional journey. We are pleased with the sentence. We didn’t think she would get a custodial sentence because she hasn’t committed any other crimes in the past. The crimes that were committed against us deserve a custodial sentence.
“Although it’s only 24-months, for her, at her time of life, that will be a big deal for her to lose her liberty. Prison is too good for her. We envisage that we will have a much better quality of personal life now that this has happened for us.”
Both step-daughters now live in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, but the biological daughter of Sharp has moved to South Wales to make a new life.
