A serial child abuser who kept a toddler in a cage has moaned that she was unable to do her punishment because she had a baby.
Evil Claire Boyle was sentenced to unpaid work for caging the boy and starving a four-year-old boy so badly doctors feared he had cancer.
The 34-year-old was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work, and be supervised by social workers for 18 months, earlier this year as part of a Community Payback Order (CPO).
But she said she was unable to climb into the van which takes offenders to their unpaid work because of the baby's birth.
She made the claims yesterday during a CPO progress review hearing at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.
Boyle appeared without a lawyer, with the court hearing the solicitor who conducted her trial no longer represents her.
Sheriff Michael Higgins then told her to return on another date with a new lawyer, saying he was "concerned" by her progress, and adding: "You'll appreciate this is a very serious matter.
"The sentence was a direct alternative to a custodial sentence and I explained that to you clearly at the time."
Boyle said: "I've actually done quite a few hours. I've got a bad nerve in my back.
"I've just had a cesarean, not even a year ago. It wasn't that I didn't want to do the work, it was climbing up into the van that was hurting my back."
As he postponed Boyle's review hearing, Sheriff Higgins said: "There are concerning matters within the report, specifically in regards your engagement with social workers, and your behaviour with social workers in that engagement."
Boyle and her boyfriend, Timothy Johnstone, 57, denied child neglect but were found guilty following a lengthy trial.
Their neglect only came to light after the older boy, who was covered in bruises, escaped from their flat in Newmilns, East Ayrshire, through a window.
He squeezed through a six-inch gap between the window pane and frame, dropped four feet to the ground in just his pyjamas, and was found wandering the streets in the rain on October 3, 2018.
Medics checking him over at hospital discovered so many bruises they thought he may have blood cancer or a blood clotting disorder.
And when officers arrived at Boyle and Johnstone's home they found a two-year-old boy being kept in a home-made cage.
Yesterday, Sheriff Higgins praised Johnstone for his "positive" CPO progress, saying he was engaging well with his unpaid work and supervision.
Boyle was allowed to look after the kids despite two previous convictions for child neglect.
In 2014 she was found comatose on a couch, through drink or drugs, with a distressed baby at her feet.
And in 2015 she was caught trying to sell a baby for £1million on a Scots high street - and shaking the wee boy, shouting at him and abandoning him in a “damp and draughty” close.
A significant case review into the Social Work Department's handling of the case is being carried out by South Ayrshire Council and East Ayrshire Council.
