Woman, 68, accused of torturing girls
13 April 2012
A great-grandmother whipped two girls with a curtain rail and made them clean their teeth with salt, a court heard today.
Sarah Johnson, 68, made one girl, aged 10, hang from a door frame while she beat her. She cut the other girl, aged six, and put pepper in the wound, the prosecution alleged. Southwark Crown Court heard how the two girls came from Sierre Leone to live with her. The older girl said she had to work as a cleaner.
Johnson, of Bethnal denies two counts of cruelty and two counts of indecency, one with a girl aged two. Her granddaughter Hannah Davies, 23, of Walworth, denies cruelty.
