Brute who kept child in a cage is found dead
A monster who kept a toddler in a cage has died.
Claire Boyle’s body was found by cops at property in Ochiltree on Thursday morning.
The 37-year-old brute had a number of convictions for child neglect.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We were called to a property 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.”
In 2021, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard how Boyle neglected a four-year-old child so badly doctors feared he had blood cancer or a blood clotting disorder.
Her mistreatment only came to light 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.
Officers then went to the home Boyle shared with her partner, Timothy Johnstone.
When they arrived at the property, in Newmilns, they found a two-year-old child being kept in a homemade cage.
Boyle and Johnstone, 60, denied child neglect but were found guilty following a lengthy trial and were spared jail.
Boyle was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work. She was allowed to look after the kids 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.
In the same year, she was given another Community Payback Order after being caught trying to sell the same baby for £1million on Ayr High Street.