A cruel mother and father who forced their healthy child to use a wheelchair for four years in a scam to claim extra benefits have had their comeuppance in court.
Louise Law, 50, and her ex-husband Martin, 54, made a mockery of the benefits system by using their child as a ploy to gain a mobility car and disability allowance payments.
The pair, from Goole, East Yorkshire, instructed their seven-year-old to start using the device in 2012 while they ‘fabricated illnesses and exaggerated symptoms’ for teachers and NHS workers.
The boy was ridiculed at school and denied a typical upbringing, according to evidence presented to Hull Crown Court, resulting in “gratuitous degradation” from having to use a wheelchair.
Louise Law acknowledged committing child abuse in court. On the day of her planned trial, she entered a different plea and was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
Despite being found guilty of child abuse by a jury, Martin Law, who is now separated from his wife, has been living in a care facility for a long time and was not allowed to make a plea. A guardianship order was placed over him.
Passing sentence, Judge Kate Rayfield told Mrs Law, ‘You repeatedly raised the issue of a wheelchair. You were repeatedly advised against it.
‘Despite all of the tests revealing nothing wrong, you continued to subject [the child] to appointments and investigations. You did the talking yourselves, telling the doctors lies.
‘This was a scam… You were telling [the child] to report symptoms that they never said that they had.’
Physicians expressed worries that the Laws were inventing or exaggerating the child’s symptoms in order to make the illness seem legitimate. The twelve-year-old was placed in foster care.
The victim was interviewed in September 2022, at the age of 18. They said that the behaviour from their parents began when they were around five or six.
A few initial medical appointments progressed to around 30 hospital appointments, including overnight stays.
Prosecutor Louise Reevell told the court: ‘[The] parents made them think that they could not walk properly. They would go to school in a wheelchair but they didn’t really need it.’
Upon the child’s placement in foster care, their caretaker promptly ensured that they ceased utilising the wheelchair and medicine, both of which were unnecessary.
‘[The child] was able to run up and down stairs,’ said Mrs Reevell. ‘[they] went on to join the Army cadets and did normal activities at school. At no point while in foster care did they suffer any pain or tiredness.
‘The whole situation had a terrible effect on their mental health. Eventually, [the child] stopped all contact with their parents, and, as time went on, their mental health declined still further.
‘They realised that they could do all the things that their parents had told them that they could not. They were discharged from an array of health care professionals that they had been referred to over the years.’
When it was discovered that the child’s wheeziness and allergies were the only issues, medical personnel began to think that the ailments had been made up.
The length of time they got away with it astounds me. Did all the doctors miss what was going on?
Some parents make sure they see different doctors all the time so they can’t compare what the person was like the time before. Plus, they learn all the right things to say and coach the child because it’s very difficult to call a child a liar when they’re telling you they’re in pain.
And for those people out there who believe getting disability benefits is easier than 1, 2, 3—it’s not!
Even if they are nonverbal or in need of round-the-clock care, some very ill individuals may have been before a tribunal more than six times and still be denied compensation for their impairment, and not everyone who has disabilities walks on crutches or uses wheelchairs; they have other health conditions that aren’t visible, so please remember that!
Some parents may take advantage of their kids for financial benefit; however, this isn’t always the case. There are loads of children out there with physical or mental illnesses, but remember, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 