Woman jailed for whipping child across face with a weapon leaving permanent scars

A woman has been jailed for striking a child with a weapon, leaving the ‘helpless baby’s face’ with permanent scars.

Amira Memur, 41, struck the 18-month-old toddler twice across the face with an unidentified weapon, leaving the child with wounds to the cheek.

Mrs Memur was jailed for 21 months for unlawful wounding and child cruelty while her husband Mehmet Memur was also convicted after he failed to seek medical attention for the child.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the child’s wound became infected.




Gavin Doig, prosecuting said: ‘By December 13 at 11am, the injuries to the child’s cheek were obviously not fresh and had, according to medical opinion, become infected. 

‘The child sustained two full thickness linear wounds to the cheek.’

Mrs Memur, who appeared in court with a translator, had already been convicted of child cruelty in 2009 for hitting another child with a stick.

 Today Judge Guy Whitburn said to Mrs Memur, of Byker, Newcastle: ‘You were convicted of unlawful wounding and child cruelty. 

‘The injuries which you inflicted on an 18-month-old child were serious, the photographs were shown to the jury and an instrument of some sort was undoubtedly used and I gather from the pre-sentence report that there has been permanent scarring of that helpless baby’s face.’

Mrs Memur was jailed for 21 months, serving 15 months for unlawful wounding and six months for child cruelty to run concurrently.

Mr Memur was given a community order with the requirement that he serve 150 hours of community service for one charge of child cruelty.

Judge Whitburn told Mr Memur: ‘You unwisely accepted the explanation of your wife that delayed taking the child to hospital.     

‘By the time the child was taken to hospital the wounds had become infected.
‘It was misplaced loyalty to your wife.’

Annaliese Haugstad, defending, said: ‘If your honour were to deprive her of her liberty she would be extremely vulnerable within the prison setting, in addition to how isolated she would be.’

The case came as a charity revealed research that six out of ten social workers would act rapidly to protect a child from physical harm, but would do nothing or wait to help a youngster going hungry or without clothes and medical help.

The report by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Community Care found that social workers are routinely ignoring the suffering of children neglected by their parents.

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