A brutal woman was caught on a secret camera meting out sickening violence to a mother and two young children.

Tracey Ibrahim, 41, hacked off the woman's hair and "dunked" her head in the bath. She also physically and verbally abused the daughters, aged just three and one.

A shocked judge watched sickening film clips of the violence and declared: "This is not anti-social behaviour, it is animal behaviour in my book.

"We can all remember, and I doubt we will ever forget it, the way the youngest one was handled - almost like a rag doll."

Judge Michael Carroll added: "I speak as someone who has been sitting here for 22 years and I have never seen this before."

Ibrahim, (pictured above) of Falmouth Place, Five Oak Green, Tonbridge, was jailed for three years and 10 months after admitting two offences of assaulting the mother causing her actual bodily harm and two of common assault on the children.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the camera was set up in the Tonbridge house by the mother's family after they noticed bruising on her and the children.

The camera was concealed in a clock on the kitchen worktop, focusing on the kitchen and living room.

Judith King, prosecuting, said it showed Ibrahim verbally abusing, threatening and hitting the mother - who was slight and much smaller than her overweight attacker.

"this is not anti-social behaviour, it is animal behaviour in my book..." – judge michael carroll

It was clear the mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was in fear. Ibrahim threatened her with "Jonny" and vowed to place a curse on her using voodoo magic.

The woman was so terrified of Ibrahim that she at first told police all the injuries were accidental.

But she broke down weeping: "Tracey will kill me if I say anything." She had lied, she said, because she feared Ibrahim and Jonny would kill her.

Ibrahim claimed she was psychic and acted as a medium for Jonny, who she claimed had died in a motorbike accident. When abusing and assaulting the mother she declared Jonny was responsible.

"She claimed to be able to practise voodoo and put curses on people," said the prosecutor. It is clear (the mother) believed this and lived in fear."

If she or the two children reacted to assaults on them, they would be further punished.

"If I cried or whinged or yelped or anything when getting hurt, I would just get further hurt," said the mother.

Tracey Ibrahim was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court

She revealed Ibrahim stabbed her in the leg with scissors, causing her to limp. Ibrahim ordered her to say she had a bad back.

"The defendant would tell her to run a bath and would force her head under the water while she knelt on the floor. The defendant would have one hand on her head and she would have to hold her hands behind her back.

"She learned that if she protested or struggled, the punishment would go on for longer. The defendant referred to this as dunking."

The mother said: "She said it was Jonny, his spirit, and that I was to be punished and dunked. I was pushed around… and threatened to be stabbed and have my hair cut and I was dunked."

Mrs King said the mother's body was covered in bruises. Her hair was forcibly cut off on several occasions, leaving her with bald patches and nicks and cuts to her neck.

She was proud of her long hair and could be heard on the CCTV film begging Ibrahim not to cut it.

Ibrahim asks: "How do you like your new hair?" The mother replies: "I hate it. I nearly died in there. I couldn't breathe."

The older child was also dunked and had her head banged on the bottom of the bath. If she made a noise, she would get more dunkings.

The girl would be so distressed she would vomit. Her hair was also cut as punishment. Ibrahim would slap her face, hands and bottom.

The youngest girl was also dunked if she cried when she saw what was happening to her sister. She was slapped, lifted up by her hair, picked up by one leg and thrown onto the sofa.

When arrested in September 2011, Ibrahim blamed the mother for injuries to herself and the children. But once she was shown the video clips she declined to answer any more questions.

Judge Carroll (pictured below right) said there were sustained repeated assaults and a significant degree of premeditation was involved.

Describing the video clips as "horrific", he said the mother was extremely vulnerable.

"If it had not been for the concerns of other members of her family this might have gone unchecked for a considerable time beyond that when the police were able to act and arrest you," he told Ibrahim.

"You seemed to go out of your way to engineer a confrontation with her."

The judge said cutting the mother's hair was "particularly humiliating".

He added: "The way you treated those little ones, you know and everyone knows, is beyond the pale.

"Because there are three victims, there will be three separate sentences and they will be consecutive."

Judge Carroll said he would unusually impose the maximum sentence available to him in relation to the children, "which in the circumstances might well appear to be in general woefully inadequate".

Ibrahim was sentenced to three years for the assaults on the mother and five months consecutive for each of the assaults on the children.

A restraining order was made banning Ibrahim from any contact with the mother and children.

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Victim: 'My life is nothing without children'

The mother said in a statement to the court she felt she was being punished as a result of Ibrahim's behaviour by her children being taken into foster care.

"They are my world and my life is nothing without them," she said. "Nothing feels the same now I don't have the kids."

She added: "I have flashbacks and nightmares about what has happened. I can't have a bath because of the memory of what she did to me and the girls.

"I still have bald patches and have to wear a headband to cover them. People laugh at me in the street."