An attention-seeking mother put her own blood into her daughter’s urine so doctors would think the girl was critically ill, it has been claimed.

The six-year-old child had a large needle inserted in her kidney during a biopsy, with staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London allegedly overhearing the mother tell her: ‘Act in pain’.

However the girl’s results were clear and the 31-year-old mother-of-four, a former pub manager from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, was arrested after an uncontaminated urine sample was tested.

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Treatment: The six-year-old child had a large needle inserted in her kidney during a biopsy, with staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (pictured) in London allegedly overhearing the mother tell her: ‘Act in pain’

The woman could now be jailed for up to ten years after admitting wilfully assaulting, ill-treating and neglecting a child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury on Monday.

According to a report by The Sun journalist Rob Pattinson, the girl had spent a week at Lister Hospital in Stevenage following claims that she had bloody urine and a high temperature.

Two days later she was taken to A&E by her mother who claimed she was vomiting and had more bloody urine, before the pair are said to have gone to Great Ormond Street with a faked urine sample.

The case was adjourned at Cambridge Crown Court for psychiatric reports, and the mother declined to comment after the hearing. Her children are believed to be living with their grandmother.

Case: The mother could now face a long spell in jail after admitting wilfully assaulting, ill-treating and neglecting a child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury at Cambridge Crown Court (pictured)

The incident appears to have been a case of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, where a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in a child.

This rare form of child abuse is also known as fabricated or induced illness (FII) - with UK healthcare professionals preferring the term because it places the focus on the victim, rather than the abuser.

An average of one child per year in a population of one million people is believed to be affected by FII. The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit identified 97 FII cases in Britain over a two-year period.