MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - A court in the Sverdlovsk Region in Russia's Urals has sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for killing her three-year-old son in a violent attack, during which she bit the child numerous times.

Investigators said that Svetlana, aged 31, had been drinking with two friends at her home in Kamensk-Uralsky in October 2008. On noticing that her son Ivan had dirty hands, she took him into the bathroom.

The woman told police that she only has a vague recollection of what followed. She appears to have used a plastic shelf to beat her son about the head, neck and torso, inflicting fatal injuries. Forensic examiners later counted 51 bite marks on the child's body.

The boy remained conscious throughout the attack, and ran to his room, where he collapsed and died. Svetlana's drinking partners reportedly heard the child screaming for a full 20 minutes, but did not intervene.

The woman has admitted beating her son, but said she did it "to teach him a lesson," and had not wanted to kill the boy.

The woman was found guilty of murder, and could have been given a life sentence. However, the court handed down the reduced term, in view of her difficult circumstances and absence of previous convictions.