A YOUNG girl was beaten with belts, spoons and sticks for three years by her mother, a court has heard.

The mother is charged with assault and ill neglect of the girl, who is now aged 11, and appeared on Tuesday at Bristol Crown Court.

The jury heard that the girl had been hit with various objects for failing to do chores or school homework correctly, while she was also once whipped with a phone charger cable.

The mother denies the charge, which alleged to have happened when the girl was aged seven to 10, and says her daughter has made the accusations up.

The girl had lived with her mother and siblings at their home in central Weston, while another relative who was said to beat her was a regular visitor.

The mother, who the Mercury cannot name to protect the girl’s identity, was said to have disciplined her children by hitting their palms with a stick.

But the court heard the abuse, which started when the girl was aged seven, went much farther, with the mother beating her daughter on the face, neck and arms with a black belt which she kept under her pillow.

The girl said the beatings made her feel ‘that she didn’t deserve things’.

In a police interview conducted shortly after her mother’s arrest last February which was played to the jury the girl said she faced beatings if she made mistakes in her maths homework or if she did not do chores properly.

The jury also heard that the other relative had beaten her with one of her trainers after she had been accused of stealing something, while on another occasion her mother had hit her across her face and body with the cable of a Nokia phone charger.

Throughout the three years the daughter said her mother had beaten her with a wooden spoon, the stick, brushes and other household objects.

The court also heard a statement from a doctor who said she had examined the girl last February, and found patches of tender skin on her back which were consistent with the attacks which had been described to the court.

Prosecutor Mark Worsley said the alleged incidents had been reported to the police last February when the girl told a schoolfriend, who then convinced her to tell a learning support assistant.

The trial is expected to finish today or tomorrow.