A “sadistic” mum who burned her five-year-old son with cigarettes and intentionally slammed his face against a staircase has been jailed.

The woman subjected the boy to a traumatising campaign of cruelty, even bragging in one text message: “I just smacked him so hard he flew across the room.”

A court heard how the beatings she unleashed upon her son at their Kent home left him with “psychological scars that may never heal”.

The mum - who is not being named to prevent the identification of her victim - was crying as she entered the dock at Canterbury Crown Court to be sentenced.

Summarising the horrors of the case, Judge Simon Taylor KC recounted the police interview given by the boy after burn marks were discovered on his chest and abdomen

“‘Mummy burned me’, he said. When asked how many times, he said ‘twice’,” the judge recalled.

“When asked what did she burn you with, he said: ‘A fag’.

“He felt bad when he was burned. He said his mum was holding the fag at the time he was burned and that she felt happy at the time.

“[The child] said he thought she was glad that she did it because she didn’t say sorry.”

The court heard how during another attack on the boy the woman “slammed his face onto the stairs”, leaving both of his eyes swollen and yellow.

Despite being found guilty by a jury of two charges of actual bodily harm and one of child cruelty, the defendant denies wrongdoing.

She appeared in the dock wearing a cardigan and for much of the hearing sat sideways in her chair, refusing to face the courtroom.

Judge Taylor went on to read out text messages sent by the mother describing more assaults on her son.

“I just smacked him so hard he flew across the room,” she wrote in one.

“[He] is f***ing pulling [his sister’s] hair, so I f***ing pulled his.

“Just f***ing smack the little s**t, I hate him.”

Prosecuting, Tom Worden, said the mother’s “sadistic behaviour” displayed a “deliberate disregard for the wellbeing of the victim”.

The physical scars may heal in time, but the mental and psychological scars may never heal and that’s something that [he] and I will have to learn to live with...

The lasting effects of the campaign of cruelty were laid bare as he read aloud a statement written by another family member, who now has care of the boy.

“[He] has developed what can only be described as night terrors which cause him to outburst in a petrified state,” they said.

“These still persist on a weekly basis, but during the height of the investigation when he was being interviewed by police, the night terrors would occur on a nightly basis.

“[He] would shout and scream out on a nightly basis things such as ‘No, stop’ and quotes suggesting he was in a defenceless state.

“Waking up hearing those sounds - thinking there was an intruder in my house and that he was being attacked is a sickening thing.

“The physical scars may heal in time, but the mental and psychological scars may never heal and that’s something that [he] and I will have to learn to live with.

“My one positive thing is that [his] behaviour at school has improved since finding out the result of the guilty verdict.”

Defending, James Burke argued his client was a different person to the one who had committed the offences and suggested the child’s misbehaviour was simply too much for her to handle.

“The person being sentenced today has been working hard to improve herself and her parenting skills,” said Mr Burke.

“The defendant at the time had difficulties herself - trauma, adverse childhood experiences. Her psychological make-up was such that when presented with challenging behaviour, she has had a low tolerance and managed it inappropriately.

“Several friends speak of her positively as a friend and a mother.”

The lawyer also attempted to argue that the woman’s autism - undiagnosed at the time of the offending - contributed to her mistreatment of the child.

However, Judge Taylor firmly rejected this aspect of the mitigation, calling it “insulting to people that experience autism”.

He addressed the woman directly as he handed down her punishment.

“[The child] was old enough to understand he was being assaulted although, like anyone, bewildered as to why his mother was assaulting him,” he said.

“I place significant weight on the fact that you have no previous convictions.

“The pre-sentence report confirms you have been diagnosed with autism and your solicitor has provided a statement indicating you have depression and ADHD.

“What I’ve not seen is any evidence that your conditions were connected to your offending.”

The mother was jailed for three-and-a-half years. As the bail officers were instructed to take her down to the court cells, she began shouting and crying and refused to go with them.

The judge stood up and left the courtroom as five guards ultimately removed her by force from the dock.

She will serve half of her sentence behind bars and the rest on licence in the community.