New Jersey woman admits pouring boiling water on 3-year-old boy in her care
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- A woman from New Jersey has admitted to scalding a 3-year-old child in her care.
Patricia Buchan, 29, of Newark, told a courtroom that she poured a pot of boiling water on the boy in December of 2018.
She said the child urinated on the floor, so she told him to take off his clothes, get in the tub and that is when she poured the boiling water on the child's lower body, resulting in 2nd-degree burns.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Buchan faces up to five years in prison.
"This child lived his first three years in a house of horrors,'' Assistant Prosecutor Michael Morris said Friday. "Today's plea resolves the case without the ordeal of the children having to testify."
Officials were alerted to the abuse by Newark public preschool officials.
The boy and five other children lived in the home, including four of Buchan's biological children, ranging in age from 1 to 7. She was also pregnant at the time of the incident with her 5th child.
Sentencing is set for December.
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