Mother rejects child abuse memoir

Ms Briscoe says her memoir is substantially true

The mother of a barrister who wrote a book detailing childhood abuse has told the High Court in London how she had a loving relationship with her daughter.

Carmen Briscoe-Mitchell told jurors her daughter's memoir, Ugly, was fiction and denied beating her with a stick.

Judge Constance Briscoe and her publishers are being sued for libel by Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell, 74.

Ms Briscoe, 51, is one of Britain's first black female judges. Her book, Ugly, was published in 2006.

Ms Briscoe has said her book is substantially true and not "a piece of fiction" and "rubbish" as claimed by her mother.

Her counsel said both Ms Briscoe and her publishers, Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, will vigorously defend the book's contents.

'Split-split stick'

Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell, a mother of 11 from Southwark, south-east London, was in tears as she told the court her daughter, who she calls Clear, was "a loving girl to me" and that she was "shocked" when she read the memoir.

"I was devastated. It affected me in many, many ways," she told the court.

Of the allegations of severe emotional and physical abuse and neglect contained in the book, Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell said: "I do not know where Clear gets these ideas from. Oh my head. I can't take it any more."

Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell denied any knowledge of a "split-split stick" that Ms Briscoe says she was beaten with as a young child.

"I don't know about this split-split stick. There wasn't one in the house. I didn't hit Clear with no split-split stick."

Ms Briscoe's counsel, Andrew Caldecott, cross-examined Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell on her position that she did not abuse any of her children.

Mr Caldecott presented the court with documents from Southwark borough's social services department outlining allegations made in connection with her then 14-year-old son, Carlton.

A social services letter stated that she had locked him in a room and threatened to strip him naked and beat him.

Mrs Briscoe-Mitchell denied the allegations and suggested that the letter from the social worker might have been written by Ms Briscoe, but Mr Caldecott countered that it was an original manuscript obtained from the council.

Ms Briscoe, a successful London barrister and part-time judge, has since written a second volume of her memoir, entitled, Beyond Ugly.