US mum jailed for beating, gluing kid's hands to wall

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Texas judge has sentenced a mother who superglued her toddler's hands to a wall to 99 years in prison, local media reported on Saturday.

During the September 2011 assault on her two-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Escalona also beat the girl into a coma, according to The Dallas Morning News. The 23-year-old mother of five had pleaded guilty in July to felony injury to a child.

"I hit her, I kicked her constantly, and she didn't deserve that," the newspaper's crime blog quoted Escalona as saying in court last week. "Only a monster does that." According to the blog, the abuse - which resulted in bleeding of the girl's brain - appeared to be over potty training.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Larry Mitchell said Escalona needed to be punished for savagely beating her child "to the edge of death." The daughter survived and, according to testimony referenced by the blog, is doing well.