Pa. Mother Convicted in Daughter's Torture

[Judi Lynn]

Pa. Mother Convicted in Daughter's Torture

By Associated Press
October 21, 2005, 10:14 PM EDT

PITTSBURGH -- A mother was convicted Friday on charges alleging she beat her 7-year-old daughter with a dog chain and keys, burned her wrists on a stove, poured bleach on her and forced cat food and salt down her throat.

An Allegheny County jury found Debra Liberman, 52, of Carrick guilty of aggravated assault and related charges. She was acquitted of attempted homicide.

"This little girl was terrorized physically and emotionally and psychologically battered for a course of hours," Deputy District Attorney Laura Ditka said. "She told police and told the jury she thought she might die."

Police investigating reports of screams coming from Liberman's home in February 2004 said they found Haley Liberman in a closet, naked and wet.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-child-in-cellar,0,5576720.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Kailassa]

1. Thank god someone reported the screaming.

As regards the mother, on the one hand I'd like to rip her a dozen new assholes, but on the other hand, could a sane person do such horrible things? We need somewhere where such sickos can be given a 2nd chance, but never ever be allowed near children again.

[undergroundpanther]

2. her mother should be shot.

A monster like this girl's mother does not deserve to live.I know there are the people who say rehab etc.But frankly when is enough enough. I myself could not DO that to another human being .I can't imagine it.It's sick.It's wrong. It's evil.There is NO REASON why a child abuser like this monster needs to be tolerated or live another day after her conviction..
She is not a human being anymore. I have no pity for child abusers.They torture kids so they grow up to be messed up adults that make our entire culture sick and continue the trauma that sometimes messes up people for life..Bullies ,authoritarians and sociopaths need to stop or be gone.
No more tolerance for child torturers or adult torturers for that matter..

[woo me with science]

12. gotta agree with you here. nt

[Kailassa]

9. When I was on my own with young children,

Broke, lonely, often hungry, and struggling to control a rage that childhood abuse had left boiling deep within me, I often had the most horrific nightmare imaginable. I would dream that I had been woken by police, and was being dragged through a murder trial, being charged with doing terrible things to my children that I had no memory of having done.

So when I read of a mother who did do abominable things, I think: "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[LostinVA]

11. Sorry, Rusty Yates was at least as culpable as his wife

And you deserve to get flames for posting this. "Radical elements of the feminist movement"? You're on the wrong board. Frankly, I find it distasteful that you're blaming "Femnazis on this." What you wrote is ignorant and inflammatory, and you KNOW that... your own words said that. No one on this board has EVER defended anyone who cold-blooded killed someone.

Your comments on the Yates case shows you know nothing about the case, because Andrea Yates was MEDICALLY diagnosed with a disorder and was told to have no more children. Glad to see she immaculately concepted and wasn't impregnated by her Freeper Fundie "I want enough kids to have a baseball team" husband. She was mentally ill and was FORCED to act as a brood mare, even after she was diagnosed with extreme PND.

You know, your whole post strikes me as at least sexist and probably misogynistic.

[undergroundpanther]

6. Torture is not the answer

Just fucking kill her.Make her GONE. When she is dead and rotten she cannot hurt anybody ever again.She is unable to speak or think or indulge her sickness anymore. Some people by their choices can give up their right to exist I think.Rape, child abuse,pedophilia torture,genocide, are those kinds of acts that need to stop. Torture is one of those things that are wrong.period. And as awful as she is,a bunch of thugs raping her is not humane punishment.. Just kill her that is what I would want,I want her unable to harm ANYONE.Mistreating her will do nothing to her and it will not help the girl she mistreated or the thugs raping her.Just Kill her and bury her ashes in an unmarked grave in a plastic zip-lock bag after you took a nice healthy shit in it...

[SammyBlue]

5. Catch this line

Liberman's attorneys had argued Liberman suffered temporary psychosis from asthma medication. They said they plan to appeal.

This has got to be the worst defense I have ever heard. What asthma medication has a side effect of "uncontrolled homocidal rage?"

This witch went ape shit on her daughter and tried to kill her, nothing more. Come up with your insane defense schemes. WTF!!!

[NorthernSpy]

17. apparently, Liberman claimed that prednisone made her do it...

Steroid psychosis is not completely unheard of, but the jury evidently did not buy Liberman's claim that the medicine she was taking for her asthma made her abuse her adopted daughter:

Defense attorney Todd Hollis said Ms. Liberman was legally insane and suffering from psychosis at the time of the incidents. She had been taking Prednisone, a strong steroid, to treat asthma.

The daughter, Haley Liberman, now 9, took the stand yesterday. Haley said her mother had never lashed out like that before, but it was not the first time she had hit her. The girl said Ms. Liberman might have been upset because she had just told her she loved her father more than her.

[Der Blaue Engel]

7. This is the most disgusting thread I've seen on DU in a long time

eom

[Poppyseedman]

8. Mom's 52, the little girl is 7 Gave birth at 45 ????

We are missing part of the story here. Either way the horrible women needs to be in prison

[LisaL]

10. What part of the story are we missing? Why are you so shocked

someone can give birth at age 45?

[Poppyseedman]

18. Giving birth at 45 years of age is pretty rare

The missing part posted later in the thread is she is adopted

[NorthernSpy]

13. It was adoption. I wonder how Haley's real mother feels about all this...

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

Haley Liberman buried her head in the side of a prosecutor who led her into a courtroom Tuesday morning.
The 9-year-old girl with long brown hair and pudgy cheeks didn't want to look at her adoptive mother, Debra Liberman, who sat at the defendant's table.

She avoided making eye contact with Liberman for more than 30 minutes, as she recounted the night her mother poured bleach down her back, beat her with a dog collar, forced cat food and salt down her throat and locked her in a coal cellar, and then a closet.

"I was saying, 'Please stop, Mommy, it hurts,' " Haley told the jury after Allegheny County Assistant District Attorney Laura Ditka asked whether she said anything during the attack. "I kept yelling for help."

While it's not all that uncommon for women in their mid-forties to give birth, that was not what happened in this case. Debra Liberman is NOT the child's natural mother.

I wonder how Haley's real mom feels about what has been done to her daughter -- or whether she even knows...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. In that case, somebody in the adoption agency wasn't too careful

:cry:

[DebJ]

14. After watching the PA stories in natl headlines for the past 2 yrs

no wonder Santorum was elected. I just moved here 2 yrs ago, and every 8-12 wks some awful story hits the national news. There has begun an influx of Marylanders like myself here in south central PA.. thank goodness some hope for change

[stop the bleeding]

16. So sad, just so sad that people would do this, esp. to their kids.

What is wrong with people?:grr: