4 years ago
CORTLAND, N.Y. (AP) -- Officials call it one of the worst cases of child abuse they'd ever seen.
A five-year-old boy was found in a home in the central New York city of Cortland weighing just 15 pounds and covered in lice and feces. Child protective workers visited the boy's home at least four times, but the boy's mother told police she never let workers inside. Workers said she even wrapped the boy, who has Down syndrome, in blankets and extra clothes when she brought him to the porch.
It took the drug raid 12 days ago to discover a house full of garbage and roaches -- and the boy, who could not speak or eat, sitting in a diaper full of his own waste.
The discovery is raising questions about the right of child protective workers to enter a home. Cortland County officials have asked state officials to review the case.
The boy was in fair condition last week at University Hospital in Syracuse.
ap
