A two-year-old boy was kept in a home-made cage in a house of horrors that only came to light when a four-year-old escaped through a gap in the window.
Claire Boyle, 34, and partner Timothy Johnstone, 57, trapped a toddler in a modified cot with a wooden frame strapped across the top to prevent him from getting out.
He was found there by officers distressed and with a full nappy after another child fled the flat by squeezing through a six-inch gap in the window and dropping four feet to the ground.
The four-year-old was found alone in the street in his pyjamas as it poured down with rain on October 3, 2018. When taken to hospital to be checked over, medics discovered so many bruises they thought he may have blood cancer or a blood clotting disorder, according to the Daily Record.
Boyle – who claimed the older boy self-harmed and the cot was modified to protect the younger child– is facing jail after racking up her third conviction for child neglect.
She and Johnstone were both convicted of neglect of the two-year-old on Thursday following a trial at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, while Boyle was convicted of the same offence in relation to the older child.
Police launched an investigation following a report from the member of the public who found the four-year-old boy soaked in the street in Newmilns, Ayrshire, south west Scotland.
When officers arrived at the property they found the younger child trapped in the makeshift cage in a bedroom.
Giving evidence, Police Constable Adam Peppard said: ‘[The toddler’s] nappy was full and hanging low and he was upset.
‘[He] was within the makeshift cot – the bottom of the cot had been removed and strapped to the top to stop the child getting out.
‘It was turned into a very risky cage.
‘She [Boyle] started blaming it on the other child. She said it was ‘all his fault’.
‘She stated he was able to open the window and let himself out.
‘She said her solution was to put things in front of the window and to put the base over the top of the cot.’
Another officer said: ‘It looks like what I’d describe as belts from a dressing gown, tied to secure it.
‘There’s another one tied in place to hold the ‘roof’ on, for want of a better phrase.’
During the trial it emerged that in 2015, Boyle had tried to sell a 10-month-old child for £1 million to horrified passers-by on Ayr High Street.
She shook the boy, shouted at him and abandoned him in a ‘damp and draughty’ close in the town.
Giving evidence, Dr Christine Findlay, an NHS consultant paediatrician, told the court there were ‘fingertip bruises’ on the four-year-old when he was found, and dried blood around his ears, suggesting ‘a blow to the ear’.
‘This is a child who has lots of signs of injuries,’ she said.
She added that the boy had so many bruises doctors questioned whether he had a blood disorder such as hemophilia or leukaemia.
It was also heard that the four-year-old seemed very hungry when he was found, eating two sandwiches alongside minced beef and potato, three more sandwiches and an apple during his time at the hospital.
Dr Findlay said: ‘That’s not normal behaviour. That’s a child who’s hungry and took the opportunity to eat food when it’s being presented to them.’
The judge called for background reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing and adjourned the case.
When asked to comment outside court, Boyle insisted she had done wrong and told journalists: ‘Shut your mouth. Get tae f***.’
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