Children forced to eat hot paprika taken into care

Wokingham Borough Council brought a legal case against the parents

Two children who were forced by their mother to eat spoonfuls of paprika, as a form of punishment, have been taken into long-term foster care.

The boy and girl were also made, by their father, to hang upside down from a shelf until they cried from pain, Judge Richard Case previously ruled at a family court in Slough.

The mother has since been jailed for 27 months, while no further police action was taken against the father, the judge said.

He ruled the children would be safer with foster carers and granted a care order to Wokingham Borough Council.

In his previous judgement in November 2023, Judge Case found that 11 events, dating back to before 2018, were proved on the balance of probability.

He said: "The mother made the children eat spoonfuls of paprika and... threatened to apply pepper to their eyes, mouth and ears.

"The father subjected the children to stress positions in the form of being made to hang upside down from a shelf and in an inverted V with their heads on the floor."

The boy made an audio recording of his mother beating him on the feet for more than an hour, the judge previously added.

Since the previous hearing, the children have sometimes expressed a wish to live with their father, Judge Case reported.

One of the girl's interim foster carers had raised serious concerns about her mental health, including a possible suicide attempt, the judge said.

Granting the care order, he concluded: "There is, desperately sadly, no good outcome.

"In so far as it is possible, I feel the pain the parents feel about their children, especially [the girl], being so unwell, upset and distressed in foster care.

"I have no doubt they love them dearly and genuinely want the best for them and genuinely feel that can be provided in the father’s care.

"However, I cannot and do not lose sight of the fact that the origin of this pain is in their actions and the consequence of that... is an inability to safely care for the children."

Wokingham Borough Council has applied for visas for the children, whose parents may be deported, the judge added.