Boy, 8, kept prisoner by his mother

A CZECH mother imprisoned her eight-year-old son, his arms and legs tied, in a small room in their house for six months, police said yesterday.

Police in the eastern town of Kurim said the case only came to light after a neighbour's domestic camera, installed as his wife was expecting a baby, picked up images from a similar device used by the unnamed woman to keep tabs on her son.

"The eight-year-old boy, tied and naked, was lying on a concrete floor. That is how the police found him, in a state of dehydration, on Monday evening," a police spokesman said.

"His 30-year-old mother shut him up for days at a time in the 20sq ft room without windows in order to punish him for the most banal naughtiness."

The divorcee deprived the boy, who has hearing problems, of regular food and contact with other children.

She faces up to eight years in jail.