Drunk mum abuses girl over ‘wrong Bible verses’

MIDDLETOWN: A woman beat her daughter, tried to strangle her and kicked her out of their house for “incorrectly reciting Bible verses”, police say.

Rhonda Kemp Shoffner’s daughter, who is under 13, was forced to kneel on the bathroom floor at their Middletown home and repeat Bible verses, police told Pennlive.com.

The girl told police her mother had been drunk for three days.

Shoffner, police said, asked her daughter: “What did God tell the man to do with his son?”

When the girl said she did not know, Shoffner said: “God told the man to kill his son.”

Police say the girl told them she replied, “God said to forgive his son,” and Shoffner grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head into the bathroom wall.

Each time the daughter made a “mistake” Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, about five times. They alleged that Shoffner told the girl to lie down because she was going to kill her and then tried to strangle her. When the girl tried to fight off her mother, the latter bit her on the left shoulder and forearm, police said.

Eventually Shoffner told her daughter to leave the house and never return, police said. The girl fled and called her father, who drove her to a police station.

Shoffner faces charges including aggravated assault and terroristic threats over the incident. She is now in jail, unable to post the US$100,000 (RM 442,000) bail. AP