DAILY Echo readers have reacted with unprecedented outrage after a mother who glassed her 14-year-old son in the face walked free from court.

More than one hundred of you rang and emailed in the space of 24 hours over the weekend in response to our front page lead on Saturday (August 21).

We reported how the 38-year-old Boscombe woman spent all day drinking in the pub before returning home and assaulting her child.

She also kicked and punched the boy, stamped on his face and rubbed shards of glass into his body. The woman admitted assault, occasioning actual bodily harm. She escaped with just a six-month community rehabilitation order at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday.

Slamming the sentence, reader Paul Penny said: "This is a prime example of how domestic issues are not tackled properly by the courts.

"Not only should she have served a prison sentence but an example should be made of her. It may deter certain people from this kind of action rather than letting them think they can get away with it."

Mum-of-two Mrs Marjorie Joyce from Wimborne said: "I am furious. As a mother and grandmother I simply can't understand how she could do this."

Mrs Elizabeth Lucas of Landford Gardens, Throop, said: "I think it is disgusting; what an awful thing for that woman to have done."

More reaction tomorrow.

First published: August 23