A Warwickshire OAP has been jailed for 10 years for multiple counts of child cruelty which took place almost five decades ago.

Elsie Wheddon, 72, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court having previous been found guilty of 13 counts of cruelty against three children in Oxfordshire in the 1970's.

The children were said to have been locked in cupboards, had "rat-like creatures" run over their bodies, threatened with her husband's guns, and were beaten with a belt or punched.

The trial - which concluded in February - also heard Wheddon, of Northend, Warwickshire, used one of the girl's head "as a mop" after the youngster urinated on the floor in a childhood indiscretion.

She is alleged to have participated in the physical violence dished out on the two girls and a boy by her then husband Stephen Wheddon, who has since died.

Prosecutors say she also knew about – and failed to stop – her husband sexually assaulting the girls.

Recorder Stuart Trimmer KC said her what she had done had caused "life-long incalculable harm".

'Horror Movie'

During the trial, a written account read back to her as she was on the witness stand, one of the victims, said: "It was just like living in a horror movie.

"I did not know what was going on. I quite often used to wet myself on purpose.

"I was always locked in the bedroom. I was very nervous, the hitting became more regular. I got hit every day.

"The door was bolted - I would just curl up in a ball and hope I would be rescued."

The woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, said she was made to strip and run up and down the hallway while being hit.

"It became just fun to them," she added.

"They used to get their children to hit me as well."

The boy was allegedly burnt with a cigarette lighter, leaving him with a mark on his back, then locked in the loft after he failed to heed an instruction not to cry, it was said.

Speaking in a video recorded interview, one of the women added: "It was like we was their personal punchbags. That's what it feels like. I was their punchbag."