A WOMAN has been told she will go to prison after being found guilty of a carrying out a decade-long campaign of physical abuse and cruelty against a young girl.

Christine Morgan, 61, of The Tyleshades, Romsey, began the systematic abuse when the victim was just four years old.

It lasted for about ten years in which she threatened to kill the youngster, struck her in the face and grabbed her by the throat.

The girl, now an adult, told Southampton Crown Court how Morgan had once forced her mouth open and stuffed it with cloth that had cleaning fluid on it, and she had also held her head under water.

She said she had suffered nightmares and been left mentally scarred by the 61-year-old “haunting her”.

In a video recording of her interview with police, the victim described how she had been affected by her ordeal.

“I need something to be done about it for my peace of mind because it’s affected my mental health – everything.

“It’s playing on my mind all the time. It’s always felt in the back of my head that she's haunting me all the time and I have just lately cracked.

“I’m paying for what she did.”

Prosecuting, Elizabeth Bussey-Jones said the victim had been subjected for years to various forms of verbal abuse, being told by Morgan she hated her, she was “a waste of space” and she wanted to kill her.

The violence included being pinned by her throat against a wall, being smacked and having her hair pulled.

Jurors took just over five hours to find Morgan guilty on two counts of cruelty but clear her of one count of indecent assault alleged to have happened when she was nine or ten.

She had denied the three allegations.

Defence barrister David Reid informed Judge Gary Burrell QC she was of previous good character and lived on her own.

The judge then told her she had been convicted of serious offences.

“You must expect, inevitably, an immediate custodial sentence.”