Benefits scam mother forced daughter to use wheelchair for 4 years
A MOTHER has been jailed after forcing her healthy daughter to use a wheelchair for four years in a benefits scam.
Louise Law and then-husband Martin ‘fabricated illnesses and exaggerated symptoms’ to doctors, leading their daughter to have needless medication and hospital stays, a court heard.
The abuse, which started when the girl was aged seven, meant her suffering from bullying at school and serious psychological harm because of the ‘gratuitous degradation’ of being forced to use the wheelchair.
She suffered ‘far-reaching consequences’ and missed out on ‘normal childhood experiences’, the court was told.
Her nightmare came to an end at the age of 12 when medical staff and social services became suspicious and the girl was put into foster care.
Louise Reevell, prosecuting at Hull Crown Court, said: ‘At this stage, she appeared to make a miraculous recovery and did not require a wheelchair. She stopped taking medication and started behaving like a normal, healthy child.’
The court heard that the couple carried out the scam to gain the use of a mobility car and receive disability allowance payments. Now 19, the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, recalled in a statement how she missed out on PE at school and ‘doing the normal things that boys and girls were doing at break time’.
She said: ‘I am on the road to recovery now. It was wrong what my parents did and I deserve to be well. My parents should have cared for me and treated me like a daughter should be.’
Judge Kate Rayfield said the girl’s parents insisted on her using a wheelchair despite being repeatedly advised against it, adding: ‘She missed out on so much of her childhood because of what you put
‘She missed out on so much’
her through. Living life in a wheelchair at that age must have been very degrading.’
Law, 50, of Goole, East Yorkshire, admitted child cruelty and was jailed for six years and nine months.
Her ex-husband, 54, who is living in a care home, was deemed unfit to enter a plea but was found guilty of child cruelty by a jury.