It is becoming increasingly obvious that the mother-of-the-year award is a fleeting accolade. No sooner does one deranged parent act in a manner sufficiently despicable to elicit the shock and scorn of even the most seasoned observer of human cruelty than her replacement comes along.
The latest contender is Christine Gelineau, 53, of Penacook, N.H., who has been jailed for up to 30 years for burning off her 19-year-old son’s penis and nipples with a cigarette lighter.
After grievously injuring her flesh and blood, she coerced him to lie that his wounds were self-inflicted.
MailOnline writes that at Gelineau’s sentencing hearing in Merrimack County Superior Court, the unidentified victim read a statement describing in detail how his mother brutally abused him in the family home:
Dear ex-Mother, what you did to me is unforgivable. You beat me, starved me, almost chopped my penis off, threw my clothes away, wouldn’t let me bathe. You almost killed me by having me take three [antidepressants] and two muscle-relaxers.
Now that I know you’re a complete criminal and only wanted me dead so you could go back to your old life. You won’t be able to attend my graduation or see me go on to college, so I wish you goodbye. I hope you realize you have lost everything you had.
Gelineau, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, is reported to have sat sobbing as the boy read.
She had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and witness tampering. As part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to nine to 30 years in a state penitentiary. The punishment stiffer than what she would have normally faced because of a state statute prohibiting exceptional cruelty in assault cases.
Assistant county prosecutor George Waldron said the teenager suffered permanent nerve damage in his penis when Gelineau burned him sometime between April 10 and 14, adding, “What she did alone was one of the most horrible things I’ve seen.”
According to an affidavit, Gelineau confessed to detectives that she burned the tip of her son’s penis in response to his threat to have his way sexually with her. An accomplice of hers, who is scheduled to stand trial next month on multiple felony charges in the case, states that the only threat made was by Gelineau, who said she would burn off the child’s genitals if he refused to eat human feces.
