NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – A doctor testified that a 3-year-old girl who was allegedly bitten by her mother's boyfriend is so severely mutilated that she'll be permanently disfigured.
Doctor Alice Newton said the child might also have hearing loss.
The medical director of the child protection team at Children's Hospital in Boston appeared Wednesday at a dangerousness hearing in New Bedford District Court.
Newton said plastic surgery would not be enough to repair the girl's lip or make it look normal.
34-year-old Bryan James -- the live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother -- is charged in the biting attacks. He and 26-year-old Jessica Silveira were both ordered held without bail for 90 days.
Police said James bit off a portion of the girl's lip and beat her in the head so often that one of her ears was left deformed.
Silveira is accused covering up the abuse and misleading investigators to protect her boyfriend.
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