BRASILIA, Brazil — A man jailed for piercing his 2-year-old stepson with up to 30 needles said he intended to spite his wife by killing the child, who is recovering from surgery and scheduled for more operations later this week.
Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, who has not yet been charged, said Sunday that he drugged the boy with wine and had his lover hold the child down while he pierced him.
“I did this two or three times a week during one month,” the 30-year-old bricklayer told Globo TV’s “Fantastico” program in a telephone interview from a jail in the northeastern state of Bahia.
The boy was too drunk from the wine mixture to cry while the needles were being pushed in, but he felt pain after the alcohol wore off, Magalhaes said.
“It was truly an unbearable suffering,” he said. “It was to get back at the boy’s mother. I thought the needles would work their way through his body and kill the boy. It was a way to kill without anyone discovering.”
But the pain led the toddler to complain to his mother, and on Dec. 10 she took him to a hospital where X-rays revealed about 30 needles lodged throughout his body.
Four rusty needles that were near his heart and in his lungs were removed by surgeons Friday.
Doctors said they will try to remove three needles from the boy’s abdominal region today. He is expected to undergo a third surgery soon.
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