An older mother who desperately wanted a child and ended up conceiving by using IVF in her mid-50s has been jailed for starving and beating him, with the boy’s ordeal only ending when the school noticed him begging his classmates for food.

The mother, identified only as Sabine L. because of German privacy laws, has been sentenced to three years and nine months in prison by the Hildesheim District Court in the German state of Lower Saxony at the end of this week.

The court heard how she beat her seven-year-old son with a thermos flask and locked him up in a wardrobe without food during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany.

According to the news site Tag24, the boy reportedly begged his classmates for food even before the lockdown and was missing from class a lot.

The school alerted the authorities in June 2020 when the boy was apparently sick for the first day back after lockdown.

However, the single mother, now aged 60, refused to open her door to welfare workers checking on the youngster.

The police were then called and the boy was found locked in a wardrobe in the home weighing just 13.8 kilogrammes (2.2 stone).

Medics confirmed that the child was seriously underweight and had a large bruise on his head that required hospital treatment.

Hildesheim prosecutors demanded the woman be jailed said that the abuse was so severe that he almost died.

The woman’s older son also testified, telling the court that he left home and fled to a children’s centre when he was just 15 years old.

The defendant admitted in court to abusing him as well.

She was found by an expert to be responsible for her actions, but told the court that she had not realised how badly she was abusing him by not feeding him properly. With regards to the attack with a thermos flask, she said she could not remember doing it, and said she was sorry for what had happened.

Her defence lawyer had requested a suspended sentence, but this was rejected by the court.

It was not revealed who is now caring for the single mother’s seven-year-old son.