Massachusetts Man To Serve 18 Years For Attempting To Murder Daughter With Drain Cleaner

A Massachusetts man who attempted to murder his young daughter with drain cleaner was sentenced Monday to between 16 and 18 years in prison.

Christopher Conley, 37, of Northampton, attempted to kill his 7-year-old daughter in April 2015 by injecting her with Liquid-Plumr and overdosing her with pain medication.

Conley on Friday was found guilty of assault and battery on a child by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury, and attempted murder.

According to prosecutors, Conley injected the drain cleaner into his daughter’s cecostomy tube, an implement inserted into part of the large intestine to help patients clear their bowels. The child needed the implement to treat constipation. She was then forced to take a large dose of medication.

The child survived her father’s extreme efforts to poison her, but not without severe consequences. She required extensive surgery to remove six feet of her intestines and a third of her bladder. She was not discharged from the hospital until February 2016. Now 12 years old, she has been adopted by a new family and sees a therapist weekly to help overcome the trauma of the incident, according to her adoptive mother.

“She continues to deal with the unknown: the unknown of why this was done with her, the unknown of what she will have to face in the future, the unknown of whether her reproductive organs have been damaged and whether she will ever be able to have children of her own,” the mother said in court.