Stepdad ‘battered three children over a decade and forced them to attack each other with stilettos and steel-toe boots’
A STEPDAD used his stepson as a 'human dartboard' by hanging him on the back of a door and throwing darts at his head, a court heard.
The man – who cannot be named for legal reasons - is accused of a ten-year campaign of cruelty against his three step children.
The prosecution allege he forced the children – who also cannot be named to protect their identity - to beat each other with steel-toed boots and stilettos.
A jury was told that he hit them with his belt, beat them if they took food without permission, punched one boy if he misspelt words and hit him over the head if chores were not done correctly.
He put out cigarettes on one child, and found it "amusing" when he forced the sisters to beat their brother, it is alleged.
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In one incident, one alleged victim told the police that one child was hung on the back of the living room door where the dartboard was, before the defendant threw darts at his head.
Prosecutor Richard Haworth described the alleged incidents as "gratuitous beating, punching and hitting".
The prosecutor told Preston Crown Court that one alleged victim says the abuse started when he was around four-years-old.
He said: "The defendant would hit them with his belt after they had warmed their bottoms against the fire, so it would hurt more.
"He would make him kneel down on the floor and get his two sisters to hit him with his steel toed boots.
“He would get them to pull his hair.
"The child described how they were kept short of food."
One child is said to have been told to beat the youngest complainant but was unable to bring himself to do it because she was cowering in a corner.
So as retribution the defendant is alleged to have punched him in the head with such force that his head "bounced off the wall".
The jury was told the child was said to have suffered numerous injuries during the period of the abuse.
After going to hospital for treatment on one occasion, he was forced to run and hide from police when they said they would take him back home, jurors were told.
The court was told the child didn't tell anybody about the abuse, which lasted until he was around 14, because he "thought it was the norm".
But he told police that the defendant "robbed him of his childhood" and called him a ";bully".
The court heard that the child’s mother also used to beat him.
Another alleged victim said the violence started for her when she was around six-years-old and only stopped when she went into voluntary care aged 12.
The court heard she was forced to hit another child with the boot and sweeping brush, and slap another on the back - things the defendant is alleged to have found "amusing".
Prosecutor Mr Haworth said: "He would assault them by punching. He resorted to putting her head under the tap."
The court heard how the defendant would punch one girl all over the body and put out cigarettes and cigars on her, causing scaring.
The defendant denies three counts of child cruelty.
A second defendant denies one count of child cruelty between 1976 and 1986.
The trial continues.
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