A father-of-three has been jailed for a horrifying assault on his mentally disabled son. LINDA PIPER sees him given a four-year prison sentence.

WOOLWICH Crown Court heard how Osita Onwugbufor, aged 47, gouged a letter W into his eight-year-old son Mezie's scalp.

Onwugbufor beat the Down syndrome boy over the head with a belt and also beat one of his other sons.

Onwugbufor, of Church Manorway, Abbey Wood, was given a four-year jail sentence by Judge Hubert Dunn last Friday.

He had been found guilty of child neglect and two charges of common assault.

There is some suggestion the carving was done as part of a witchcraft ritual.

The judge told him: "Your son was a seriously disadvantaged child who was subjected to quite appalling treatment.

"In my judgment, the cruelty in this case was of a most serious nature."

Nigerian-born Onwugbufor had custody of his three sons, then aged eight, 10 and 11, but their divorced mother, Sade Gbadamosi, saw them regularly.

On June 19, 2004, when their mother arrived to collect her sons for the day, Onwugbufor refused to let them go.

A row began and both parents called the police.

When they arrived, an officer spoke to 10-year-old Ebele, who revealed his father had punched him and beat him with a stick the week before because he was late home from football.

The boy said the beating had broken the stick and left him with a bleeding mouth.

Police immediately arrested Onwugbufor, took the boys into protective custody and handed them to their mother for safekeeping.

Later the same day, she took her sons to the barber to have their hair trimmed.

As Mezie was having his hair cut, the barber found the injury to his scalp.

Onwugbufor, who was on police bail, subsequently tried to snatch the boys from their schools one afternoon but was stopped by police.

On evidence from Ebele, Onwugbufor was also charged with beating his Down syndrome child.

He consistently denied gouging the letter W into Mezie's head.

When he was sentenced last week, he again protested his innocence and claimed all three boys were in "fine health" when their mother collected them on June 19.

But at Onwugbufor's trial in December, medical expert Jason Payne-James testified the injury to Mezie's head was at least a month old and could have been done a year before.

A photograph from his special school taken in 2003, which was produced in evidence, clearly showed the injury.

There was also the scar from a similar injury which could date back to the 1990s.

Another expert witness was Dr Richard Hoskins, who was used by police in the case of the limbless African boy's body found in the Thames and believed to have been killed in an African witchcraft ritual.

He said Mezie's injury may have been caused in connection with witchcraft, but he had not seen anything like it before.

Onwugbufor was sentenced to three years in jail for child neglect and six months on each assault charge, to run consecutively. He has already lodged an appeal.

The boys are now living with their mother in Nigeria.

CASE WAS DRAGGED OUT

MARK Gay, the detective constable who dealt with the case, says it was one of the most complex he has ever dealt with because of the medical and cultural issues involved.

Det Con Gay works for the Child Abuse Investigation Command based at Marlowe House, Sidcup.

He said: "It has been very hard to see such a vulnerable child damaged in such a way."

He added: "Even now, despite all the medical evidence, Onwugbufor will not accept he was responsible for his son's injuries."

Det Con Gay says Onwugbufor successfully dragged out proceedings for nearly three years, using his law degree to make unsuccessful applications to the High Court to have the case thrown out on technicalities.