Mother beats, chokes girl over incorrect Bible verses

MIDDLETOWN — A woman severely beat her daughter, tried to strangle her and kicked her out of their house for incorrectly reciting Bible verses, police in the American state of Pennsylvania say.

Rhonda Kemp Shoffner’s daughter, who is under the age of 13, was forced to kneel on the bathroom floor at their Middletown home and repeat Bible verses, said the police. The girl told police her mother had been drunk for three days.

The police say each time the daughter made a mistake Shoffner slammed her head into the wall, about five times. They allege 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 mother bit her on the left shoulder and forearm, police say.

Eventually Shoffner told her daughter to leave the house and never return, police say.

The girl fled and called her father, who drove her to a police station.

Shoffner faces charges including aggravated assault and threats over the incident. She was being held in a jail, unable to post $100 000 bail. — AFP