Son sues mother for failing to prevent beatings by father

A son is suing his mother after claiming she should have done more to prevent his father beating him when he was a child. The 32-year-old man is demanding more than £50,000 in damages after alleging he was subjected to years of domestic abuse at the hands of his parents. His younger sister and brother have already successfully sued their father for beatings they received.

But in what is believe to be a unique case he decided to launch an action against his 67-year-old mother, claiming she was negligent and in breach of her duty of care in allowing the beatings to continue. None of the parties in the case can be named after the judge in a previous hearing involving his brother and sister granted an order preventing identification. The man, who was born in County Durham, but grew up in West London, told the court his father was a “tormentor” and a “bully” who would attack him up to 10 times a day. From the age of five, he said, his father would hit him with a variety of household objects, including a belt, an electrical cable, a hairbrush and a cane.

He said his mother also often slapped him when she lost her temper and would sometimes hit him with a clothes brush, but he said her beatings were never as bad. "I took many, many more beatings from my father. She wasn't a tormentor like my father was, continually looking for excuses to assault me. For the best part of it she was herself fairly harmless." But his counsel, Justin Levinson, told Mrs Justice Thirlwall, that as a parent she should have taken reasonable steps to protect her children from harm. "She should not have allowed her volatile husband to remain in the same house and beat his children – she should have obtained an injunction or divorced him," he said.

The man, who claims he finds it hard to remember any happy times in his childhood, is seeking £50,0000 in damages from his mother for pain and suffering as well as £7,800 for the cost of therapy he claimed he was forced to undergo. He said as a result of his treatment as a child he was unable to complete his education, had difficulty venturing outside the house, forming relationships or holding down employment. Addressing the claim that the action fell outside the legal time frame, Mr Levinson said his client had first sought professional advice about the matter 10-years ago but had been unable to pursue the case because of psychological problems. The hearing continues.