Parents Who Made 9-Year-Old Do 4-Hour 'Military Boot Camp' as Punishment Given 6 Months in Jail

A mother and stepfather who subjected a nine-year-old boy to a four-hour military-style boot camp routine to discipline him were given a six-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.

Truro Crown Court heard that the kid was kept up until the early hours. He had been made to do push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises. Each set lasting nine minutes, and if he failed he had to start again, as reported by CornwallLive.

“He describes being woken up at 9.30pm to start a course of punishment that consisted of push ups, raising his legs while lying on his back, sit ups and star jumps."

The ordeal occurred in the St Austell area of Cornwall in January 2018. His mother and stepfather admitted child cruelty and were given suspended jail terms by Judge Simon Carr.

Meanwhile, the boy's father and stepmother who were also present on the night in questions got cautions for neglecting to act.

Prosecutor Adrian Chaplin explained that the child and his younger brother lived part-time at his mother and stepfather's location.

Chaplin said that the incident came to light when the victim told the staff at his school the next day.

“Matters came to the attention of people on the first day back at school after the Christmas break," he said. "A teaching assistant described how, at 8.30am as the children were arriving, that she was greeting them and the boy asked to speak to her."

Chaplin added: "She thought he looked sad and he started to describe having been punished and made to do exercises in the evening."

At that point, the message was passed to an instructor and in turn the police and social services.

The authorities interviewed the victim, and as indicated by Chaplin, his mom was not able to cope with the requests of her kids at the time.

“January 3 it seems was not a good day. The boy was sent to bed very early, at around 5.30pm, and describes having a meal of bread. He was told it was because his dad and dad’s partner were coming round," said Chaplin.

“He describes being woken up at 9.30pm to start a course of punishment that consisted of push-ups, raising his legs while lying on his back, sit-ups and star jumps. He was told he had to do the sets nine times as he was nine years old and if he didn’t complete each set the clock would reset."

He added: “He eventually went to bed at 1.05am and at no time did these two defendants or the other two people who arrived later intervene. It is effectively four adults demanding/bullying a boy to carry out exercise from which was crying, either not wanting to or unable to complete the exercise. At no stage did any adult step back and say, 'what on early are we doing?'.”

Judge Carr said that he understands both parents are now getting the help and education required.

According to Kids Health, in the United States alone, about one million children are abused each year. And these are just the reported incidents of child abuse.

A year ago, the world was shocked when Perris couple David and Louise Turpin are accused of imprisoning, abusing and starving 12 of their 13 children.

David and Louise were being held in prison on a $13 million bail. They were both charged with 12 counts of torture, false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse to a dependent adult, and six counts of child abuse.