Quote #1: Yesterday she admitted one count of cruelty on a person under 16 in which she caused or procured a child to be ill treated, abandoned or exposed in a manner causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health. She also admitted a charge of intending to pervert the course of justice for making a false accusation of rape.

Quote #2: In June 2007 consultants were seriously questioning the case when the mother then told police that she had been sexually assaulted by a mystery motorcyclist. She deliberately grazed her head and body and rubbed bleach into the wounds to make her story of a violent attack credible. Police spent hundreds of hours investigating the incident. She kept up the pretence until a woman came forward to say she believed her husband was the rapist.

One woman lies about a rape while, independently, another woman falsely alleges her husband committed the rape.

What sort of women are these that so readily abuse and misuse those they are supposed to love?

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6878582.ece

The Times
17 October 2009

Mother faces jail for faking son's illness and claiming benefits
By Simon de Bruxelles

A mother who convinced doctors that her son was the "sickest child in Britain" is facing jail for falsely claiming £130,000 in disability benefits.

The woman kept her son confined to a wheelchair fitted with oxygen bottles, fed him a deliberately unhealthy diet and allowed him to undergo an unnecessary exploratory operation.

She claimed the boy, now aged 8, had cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, the throat disorder dysphagia and was allergic to all types of food. She also doctored his urine samples to make it appear he had diabetes.

He was believed to be so ill that he was singled out for praise by a leading children's charity and even met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at a charity event. Her lies fooled health professionals as well as the boy's own father.

Doctors fitted him with a permanent feeding tube so that he could be fed through a food pump he had to wheel around behind him. In six and a half years the child spent at least six weeks of every year in hospital.

The deception, which had earned her £20,000 a year in benefits as well as a Motability car, was finally uncovered after she claimed to have been raped by a stranger, in an attempt to avoid a hospital appointment at which doctors would have discovered the boy was not suffering from diabetes.

Yesterday she admitted one count of cruelty on a person under 16 in which she caused or procured a child to be ill treated, abandoned or exposed in a manner causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health. She also admitted a charge of intending to pervert the course of justice for making a false accusation of rape.

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Mark Uren said: "The investigation began when a doctor who was dealing with the victim came to us with concerns he was being unnecessarily treated.

"She sent him to school in a wheelchair with oxygen, and she paraded him as the sickest child in Britain. She also dressed him in an ill-fitting suit so he appeared to be losing weight.

"His mother used the fabricated illnesses to take free holidays paid for by charities and was introduced to celebrities. She claimed the highest rate of disability living allowance.

"We discovered that he was, in fact, suffering from none of the symptoms of illnesses that she claimed. She was very cunning and aggressive with medical professionals."

The woman, who had studied briefly to be a nurse, faked the boy's symptoms so that he believed he was a chronic invalid. He was said to be "mentally traumatised" by his ordeal.

Hospitals including Great Ormond Street treated the boy for the invented illnesses. His school in Devon spent tens of thousands of pounds on wheelchair access for him.

Sometimes the boy defied his mother's instructions and played with friends. A police source said: "He told his school he could run and play out of his wheelchair. It was like Andy out of Little Britain in his chair and climbing up diving boards at swimming pools.

"He was made out to be the sickest kid in Britain when all the time it was his mum who was the sickest person around."

Mr Uren said the deception started soon after the boy was born. "Several test were carried out but nothing found. Four years later he had surgery under anaesthetic to install a feeding tube."

Despite the claims that he was allergic to food including wheat and gluten, a health worker spotted him at a fair eating a burger.

Mr Uren said: "His bedroom at home was like a scene out of TV's Casualty. There was a specialist bed and his mother wore a nurse's outfit. There were boxes of unopened pump feed and numerous medications. in there. The feed was unopened because the boy did not need them. We also found video of the boy running up and down a beach on holiday with not a tube in sight."

Suspicions were also raised when she added glucose to his urine to make him appear diabetic.

The boy's mother had even wangled an invitation to a recording of the television talent show The X Factor. Mr Uren said: "She contacted Simon Cowell setting out her son's illnesses and he invited them to a live performance show."

In June 2007 consultants were seriously questioning the case when the mother then told police that she had been sexually assaulted by a mystery motorcyclist. She deliberately grazed her head and body and rubbed bleach into the wounds to make her story of a violent attack credible. Police spent hundreds of hours investigating the incident. She kept up the pretence until a woman came forward to say she believed her husband was the rapist.

During the investigation the mother had managed to get herself a brand new Motability car claiming she feared the rapist could recognise her old one.

There are three other undisclosed charges, which will be dealt with at sentencing at a date to be fixed. Judge Stephen Wildblood, QC, ordered psychiatric reports to be carried out. At Exeter Crown Court the judge indicated that she will face a maximum jail term of three years and three months.

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091017/tuk-fraud-mother-faked-son-s-illness-6323e80.html

Yahoo News
17 October 2009

Fraud mother faked son's 'illness'
Press Association

A mother claimed £130,000 in benefits by pretending her son was "one of the sickest children in Britain", giving him false medication and forcing him to have surgery.

Detective Constable Mark Uren, from Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, who led the investigation, said after Friday's hearing at Exeter Crown Court that the woman had "manipulated highly regarded medical professionals" to con the public purse.

He said the 35-year-old claimed £20,000 a year in disability living allowance for six and a half years by forcing her young son to be fed through a tube.

She told doctors the boy had diabetes and spiked his urine samples with glucose to fool tests. And she conned paediatricians into believing he needed a wheelchair, claiming he had cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a throat disorder called dysphagia and countless food allergies.

Since the boy was an infant she maintained to doctors, friends and family, even his father, that he was unable to eat or swallow food. She took her son to school in a wheelchair fitted with oxygen bottles and maintained that he had to be fed through a tube into his stomach. Doctors, who were never able to identify the mystery illness, eventually operated and fitted him with a permanent feeding tube.

Dozens of children's charities also gave her freebies including a new car, tickets to see the X Factor and a cruise in Tenerife. The boy, who was also convinced he was ill, was also introduced to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, avoided detection by missing key hospital appointments, on one occasion claiming she couldn't attend a diabetic appointment because she had been raped. The false rape claim was reported to police, who were on the verge of making an arrest, after the woman caused injuries to herself to substantiate her claims of a violent attack.

She was eventually found out when a paediatrician raised the alarm after reviewing her son's medical files and became suspicious that his health problems had gone on for so long without a clear diagnosis.

In court the mother admitted one count of cruelty on a person under 16 from which she caused or procured a child to be ill-treated, abandoned or exposed causing unnecessary suffering or injury to health. She also admitted a charge of intending to pervert the course of justice for making a false accusation of rape.

Judge Stephen Wildblood QC ordered psychiatric reports to be carried out ahead of sentencing at a date to be fixed.