Claire was spared jail time for her previous offences (Picture: Media Scotland)
A woman who neglected a four-year-old child so badly doctors feared he had blood cancer or a blood clotting disorder has been found dead.
Claire Boyle’s body was found after officers were called to a property in Ochiltree, Scotland last Thursday.
Ms Boyle, who was in her late 30s, had a number of previous convictions for child neglect – and kept a toddler in a horrific makeshift cot cage.
In February 2021, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court discovered she had severely neglected a four-year-old boy when the child, who was covered in bruises, escaped from her flat through a window.
He squeezed through a six-inch gap between the frame and pane and dropped four feet to the ground.
He was found wearing only pyjamas and wandering the streets in the rain and police were contacted.
Claire Boyle’s body was discovered in a flat in East Ayrshire (Picture: Media Scotland)
The cot was arranged so the tot couldn’t escape (Picture: Media Scotland)
A four year old boy in her care managed to escape (Picture: Media Scotland)
Officers then went to the home Ms Boyle shared with her partner, Timothy Johnstone, who was 23 years her senior, and found a two year old kept in a cage.
The base of a cot had been removed and secured to the top with belts from dressing gowns, meaning a child could not escape once inside.
Ms Boyle and Mr Johnstone, 60, denied child neglect but were found guilty following a lengthy trial.
The pair were spared jail and Ms Boyle was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work.
Ms Boyle was allowed to look after the children in question despite being spared jail over two previous child neglect cases.
In 2014, at Ayr Sheriff Court, she was given a Community Payback Order for being found comatose on a couch, through drink or drugs, with a distressed baby at her feet.
More Trending
At the same court, also in 2014, she was given another Community Payback Order after being caught trying to sell the same baby for £1,000,000 on Ayr High Street.
She also shook the boy, shouted at him, and abandoned him in a ‘damp and draughty’ close in the seaside town.
Boyle, who was originally from Dumfries and Galloway, also had a number of live court cases at the time of her death.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: ‘Around 7am on Thursday, April 4, 2024, police were called to a property in the Main Street area of Ochiltree, following the sudden death of a woman.
‘There are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances and a report was submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.