A mum whose years-long campaign of cruelty against a child saw her force her to eat her own vomit has had her jail term more than quadrupled by senior judges at the Court of Appeal.
Lorna Dennington, 47, admitted injuring three children in her care, in one case, making a teen who was around 15 or 16, pick up their dinner they had thrown up and eat it.
Over her campaign of abuse she also slapped a child, punched one child on the nose and hit another in the head with a cupboard door.
The horrific treatment against the three children in she and her husband's care spanned multiple years. One child faced the cruel treatment between 2006 and 2017.
On one occasion she dragged a girl out of bed and down the stairs by her hair and if she thought she had not washed properly in the bath, she would use a kitchen scrubbing pad on her skin.
Teesside Crown Court heard of how Dennington's husband, Christopher Dennington, spent all but around £1,000 of one child's £59,000 trust fund that had been left to him after his father died.
The now-adult had wanted to use the money to buy a house, Lord Justice William Davis said.
In a statement, the child said he was "gutted" that the money left to him was gone.
"They have taken away my dreams by stealing the money."
Lorna Dennington was jailed for 12 months after admitting three charges of child cruelty, Metro reports.
Her husband Christopher Dennington was also jailed for 12 months, for the same child cruelty offences as well as one count of fraud.
However, sentences handed to the pair were referred to the Court of Appeal as being "unduly lenient".
Appeal judges subsequently increased Lorna Dennington's sentence to four years and ten months.
Her husband faces a sentence of six years.
The couple appeared at the hearing in London separately via video link, with Lorna Dennington held at HMP Low Newton and her husband in custody at Holme House prison.
The Court of Appeal heard of how they both suffered mental health issues and had experienced trauma.
Lorna Dennington had previously spoken of how she was overwhelmed by the responsibility of looking after multiple children.
Lord Justice William Davis found that the sentencing judge had given the couple too large a reduction on their sentences based on their guilty pleas at the start of their trial - resulting in "wholly unreasonable" sentences.
The cruelty inflicted on the children frequently took place in front of others, the judge noticed.
Because of this, each victim developed a sense of hopelessness, he said, and they were unable to see an escape from the horrors inflicted upon them.
The sentencing judge had fallen into ‘gross error’ with the sentences, Justice David concluded, as he quashed the original terms.
Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson MP said after the hearing: "Christopher and Lorna Dennington both showed utter disregard for the welfare of the victims inflicting lasting and considerable harm on them.
"I welcome these increased sentences which better reflect the damage caused to these innocent lives."
