BOSTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A Boston woman has been convicted of child endangerment for not seeking help for a massive infection her daughter acquired after a navel piercing.
A Suffolk Superior Court jury found Deborah Robinson, 39, guilty of the felony of recklessly or wantonly permitting substantial bodily injury to a child despite pleas from her 14-year-old daughter to acquit her.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley told the Boston Globe the daughter nearly died last year after falling to 75 pounds from 115. He said the girl eventually became too weak to get off the couch, became incontinent and required diapers before paramedics were finally summoned.
Robinson's lawyer, Janet MacNab, said her client is impoverished and uneducated and didn't know how sick her daughter had become.
Robinson has already spent 14 months in jail awaiting trial and will be sentenced Oct. 26.
Her daughter and 16-year-old son have been living in foster care since her arrest, the report said.
