A husband and wife were today (Monday) in prison after being jailed for charges including the ill-treatment of children.

Bruce and Heather Hill, of Nayland Drive, Clacton, appeared for sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.

Bruce Hill, 27, had denied but was convicted of charges of assault, cruelty and four charges of ill-treatment to children. He was jailed for 18 months.

His wife, Heather Hill, 34, was convicted after a trial of ill-treatment of a child whose ribs were broken and a charge of failing to protect a child. She was sent to jail for six months.

The children cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Trial judge Benjamin Pearson told Heather Hill she was "emotionally weak" and he described her husband as the dominant personality in the relationship.

The couple had been cleared of eight further charges after the judge directed the jury to enter not guilty verdicts following legal submissions.

Judge Pearson said the case had been a "sad and difficult" one.

He told Heather Hill: "You were a woman needing affection and that opinion reinforces my own impression that you are emotionally weak."

And he told her husband: "You are by far the stronger personality. You could and should have ensured that none of this conduct ever took place."

But the judge said he was satisfied the children involved in the incidents would suffer no long-term effects.

"I can say that I am satisfied that whever trauma the children in the case suffered it was transitory and by the date of this trial recovery was complete," he said.

And he added: "Bruce Hill, you have shown no remorse and you, Heather Hill, you showed a worrying lack of emotion and no remorse whatsoever."

The court also heard Bruce Hill had previously been jailed for five months for common assault in 1996.

Previous court appearance

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Heather Hill had previously appeared before magistrates for being drunk in charge of a child.

Hill received a conditional discharge on charges of threatening behaviour and being drunk in charge of a child.

Background: Heather Hill 'withdrawn loner' at town school

Heather Hill, who was convicted of ill-treating a girl, was a loner at school.

She was described as having few friends but was someone who "tried hard".

Heather Giddings, as she was then, attended Clacton County High School from 1976 until May 1982.

She left school with about eight CSEs and two O-levels. After that she went on to do CEE studies in the sixth form.

A spokesman for the school said she was a good attender and was never in any trouble.

However, he added: "She had a serious outlook in life and was a rather serious sort of person. She did not have a lot of friends but tried hard.

"She was conscientious but withdrawn, she did not mix particularly well."

In the summer of 1983 she worked at the Tesco store in Station Road, Clacton, as a check-out girl.

One of her former colleagues said: "She was not the gregarious type and kept herself to herself and did not mix with the other girls in the shop."

The worker said Heather Hill had wild, black hair which stuck out and was not tidy.

She added Hill was "a quiet sort of girl in the shop, she wasn't loud or rude at all."

She left after about one season at the store. At 18, she left home. She was married and divorced twice by the time she was 27.

Heather met Bruce Hill in 1993 and became besotted with him. They were married in 1994. But the couple were drinkers.

Their passion was for karaoke but there was a darker side to their characters.

Treated with scorn

Bruce and Heather Hill's neighbours treated them with scorn.

At one time a brick was thrown through the window of their home and neighbours were either horrified or disgusted by what they had heard of the couple.

The pair lived in Nayland Drive, Clacton, on the end of a terraced row of houses. Their home is unassuming.

Several neighbours had heard about their arrests.

One neighbour said: "They kept themselves to themselves but there used to be quite a lot of drunken sessions. Sometimes you could see them fighting with each other."

Another neighbour said the Hills' curtains used to be drawn nearly all day and they would go out at night. It was thought the couple had lived in Nayland Drive for about four years.

A school's playing field is yards away from their home. A neighbour said she had heard children talking about the Hills and that they were generally disliked in the area.

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