Parents living in terror of son, 9, who bites and attacks them

Toby has already been in trouble with the police for causing permanent damage to a fellow child’s mouth after hitting them with a brick

 

A young mother and father have revealed how they are living in terror - of their nine-year-old son.

They say their child bites, kicks and attacks his own parents and siblings, including threatening his older brother with a knife when he was just four, and they expect him to end up in jail when he grows up.

The schoolboy features on Channel 5 documentary My Violent Child: Tearing Us Apart, which will be screened on March 4 at 9pm.

And parents Sara and Richard, whose surname is not being disclosed by programme-makers, are at the end of their tether.

Nightmare: Sara and her partner Richard are out of ideas

Toby has already been in trouble with the police for causing permanent damage to a fellow child’s mouth after hitting them with a brick and has threatened his older brother with a knife.

Richard told Wales Online: “From a very young age he was very aggressive. When he was about four, he held a knife to Casey and threw bricks at Casey.

“We’ve had police at the house where he’s thrown brick - a child ended up injured and needing dental treatment.

“I expect for Toby in his teens to be locked up, we’re expecting that. Because he doesn’t care.”

The couple have three other children - Casey, 10, Corey, seven, and Jacob, four - and have been unable to control Toby’s behaviour since he was small, with no clue what can set him off on a violent outburst.

Shocking: Toby once threw a brick at another child

Sara said: "Absolutely anything sets Toby off, it can be anything as daft as two items of food touching on his plate, a noise, a smell or something he sees - it can be anything.

“He’s physically abusive, he’s mentally abusive, he really gets to you - to the point that he makes me want to cry sometimes.

“Sometimes I just let him pinch me and hit me and then he’ll calm down and sometimes he does.

“I don’t want to live on edge every day when he wakes up, I should be able to enjoy being his mum.”
Sometimes his behaviour is so bad the couple are too scared to leave him alone with his other brothers and the pair have even been on the verge of splitting up.

Richard said: ‘It has driven us to the point where we could have parted ways many times.

“When there’s no more you can do for each other and we’re struggling, it gets to the point where it would be easier to turn and walk away.”
The show brings in parenting expert Jane Evans who tries to get to the route of the problem while encouraging the parents to develop their bond with Toby.

Sara admits that having her two eldest children so close together caused her great stress but as she starts to take on Jane’s advice – which includes being more tactile with Toby –she sees her son become calmer more quickly.

She also emphasises the importance of Richard spending quality time with his family.

The family then spend a day at the farm together and the couple admit that they are beginning to see big improvements in their son.

Sara said: “It is early days but I hope that if I persevere with it then we’ll get results down the line and I think that day will come.”