Spanish mother who hit 'difficult' son told not to see him for a year

A woman who hit her son because he had not completed his homework has been sentenced to 45 days in prison and banned from seeing him for more than a year.

MarÍa del Saliente Alonso MartÍnez, 37, was convicted of child abuse by a court in Jaen, southern Spain.

In October 2006 Alonso, who comes from Pozo Alcon, Jaen, grabbed her ten-year-old son round the neck and hit him on the back of the head after discovering that he had not finished his homework.

Earlier in the day the boy had thrown a shoe and locked himself in a lavatory. Teachers noticed later that the boy had marks on his neck, and they reported the mother to the authorities.

A judge in Jaen admitted that the boy had a “difficult character” but he nonetheless convicted his mother of “committing an act of aggression against her son”. He added: “You cannot consider this within the concept of the parental right to correct children.”

Alonso was banned from going within 500 metres of her son for a year and 45 days. The mother, who does not have to serve the prison term as she has no previous convictions, is to appeal.