Woman's neglect led to boy eating paint

Telegraph

28-05-2025

A former foster mother whose neglect of children in her care caused a young boy to eat paint has been jailed.
Yvonne Keenan, 56, was sentenced to 32 months at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to four charges of cruel and unnatural treatment at addresses in the city between 1994 and 2004.
During a decade of abuse, Keenan forced one child to eat cat food as a form of punishment after he touched a button in the kitchen.
She regularly locked the same child in his bedroom and forced him to stand in the corner, facing a wall for hours at a time.
The court heard how Keenan would not feed a girl and the younger child, sending them to bed hungry on regular occasions.
During one incident, the girl, who is now 32, scraped paint off the ceiling and fed it to the younger child, who was crying from hunger, because she did not know what else to do.
According to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the abusive carer punished the girl by cutting off her hair, and on one occasion, made her stand outside in the garden having locked the door.
A third child was threatened with and subjected to physical violence if he did not get home from school within 15 minutes.
She shouted and screamed at the boy on a daily basis and made degrading remarks about a member of his family. The child was also not fed properly and made to stand facing the wall as a punishment.
Keenan also physically abused a fourth child, who was left living in fear over the course of several years.
'Act of desperation'
The accused was described as a disciplinarian and an angry monster by some of the victims, who are all now adults.
Sean Docherty, prosecuting, said: 'The girl remembers the boy crying because he was so hungry, and she did not know what to do. She decided to scrape paint off the ceiling from the top bunk and fed it to him. She described this as an act of desperation to help him, as she did not know what else to do.'
On another occasion, the girl recalled the boy pushing a button in the kitchen, which was not allowed. Mr Docherty added: 'As a consequence, Keenan forced the boy to eat cat food which was lying in the kitchen.'
The girl also told of being made to stand in the dark kitchen overnight and being 'too scared to move'.
Keenan was violent towards her, in attacks which included dragging her off a bed and causing her head to strike a radiator. The victim also remembered being 'physically force-fed' cereal and milk.
Mr Docherty said: 'To this day, she cannot consume milk due to this experience.'
Another girl, now aged 38, stated Keenan was violent towards her, which included shaking and throwing her around. She was also slapped on the face when Keenan overheard a telephone call which referenced alcohol.
A boy, now 36, claimed 'disciplinarian' Keenan would poke him on the body if he did not return home from school in a set time.
He was also made to stand and stare at a wall for hours, as well as be without dinner.
'Unimaginable trauma'
Fraser Gibson, the Procurator Fiscal for Glasgow and Strathkelvin, said: 'Yvonne Keenan exploited her position of trust to abuse vulnerable young people, who should have been safe in her care.
'Instead, she inflicted unimaginable trauma through her violent and cruel offending over a significant number of years. It is thanks to the victims reporting their experience and giving evidence that this prosecution has been made possible.
'We are committed to robustly prosecuting non-recent allegations of abuse involving children including those in care settings. I would urge anyone who has experienced similar offending to come forward and report it, regardless of how long ago the offences took place.'