Mansfield woman beat her 80-year-old mum so savagely she had to have eye removed

Susan Lamb punched and kicked her mother, while holding her prisoner in her Perlethorpe Avenue home for three days, before the older woman fled in the early hours of the morning, just before Christmas last year.

Staff at Beech Court, an assisted living complex in Mansfield Woodhouse, grew suspicious when they received a note from Lamb’s mother, apologising for missing a Christmas lunch, prosecutor Dawn Pritchard told Nottingham Crown Court, on Wednesday.

"Me and Susan have had an argument which left me with a black eye," it said. "I am very sorry. Don't tell anyone else. PS It was an accident."

They found the woman with bruises on her face and arms, and her right eye was completely bloodshot.

Surgeons at Chesterfield Hospital found the eyeball had suffered a blunt trauma, caused “by a large penetrating injury," and removed it, replacing it with a cosmetic prosthesis.

Lamb’s mother said her daughter had become controlling and isolated her from the rest of their family. An argument was sparked when she was late for a meeting.

Ms Pritchard said: "She seemed to blame herself and said things were all right until she opened her mouth."

For about a year before the attack Lamb had been "gradually increasing the control she sought to exert over her mother's activities."

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said Lamb had spent "quite a deal of her life homeless,” and "plainly suffers from an acute learning difficulty which affects her perception of things."

The court heard she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and relied on her mother for “day-to-day help.”

Lamb, 55, of Perlthorpe Avenue, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour and causing grievous bodily harm.

Recorder Simon King imposed a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, with 35 rehabilitation days. She was banned from contacting her mother for five years.

"It's a very sad and sorry tale and your mother has suffered terribly,” he said.

“No useful purpose would be served by requiring you to remain in custody beyond an 18-month sentence, which you have already served."