A MOTHER accused of a five-year campaign of child abuse cried on the witness stand as she denied kicking a boy while he was held down by her partner.

Lisa Pratt, 36, and Andrew Clent, 30, are accused of three counts of child cruelty and Pratt of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The offences against three children are alleged to have taken place at a number of addresses in Witney between January 2010 and April 2015.

The pair, both of Mercury Close, Bampton, and who were a couple at the time, deny any abuse took place.

Monica Stevenson, defending Pratt at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, asked her about her relationship with the boy she is alleged to have kicked while Clent held him down in her back garden in April 2015.

Pratt said: "He was violent towards me, about twice a week on average. He would punch and kick me and pull my hair."

She added she was scared of the boy, who is now 19-years-old, and would sometimes lock herself in the bathroom.

Asked why she never called the police she said: "I didn't want him to have a criminal record."

She said on the day she is accused of kicking him, he had become angry and 'gone off' throwing a chair at her and breaking a washing pole.

Pratt added: "Clent restrained him on the ground and I came out and held his neck so he wouldn't bang it and hurt himself."

The trial continues.