Glenn Budgell pleaded guilty Monday on 11 charges laid in a child neglect case. (CBC)

A boy at the centre of a horrific central Newfoundland case of child neglect was so badly burned that he might have died, or lost his legs, a provincial court has been told.

Glenn Budgell, 34, pleaded guilty in Gander provincial court Monday to 11 different charges involving three boys that had been in his care.

The charges included failing to provide the necessaries of life to a five-year-old boy who was rushed to hospital after authorities took him from a Grand Falls-Windsor home.

Budgell pleaded guilty to assault against two other boys.

The court was presented with harrowing details of the medical condition of the five-year-old boy, whose legs had been badly burned in hot water.

Although court was told that while there is no evidence that the boy was deliberately burned, court was also advised that Budgell did nothing to seek medical attention for the child.

Acted on tip

Police and a social worker went to the house on Jan. 22 after receiving a tip, and found the child under a comforter in the bedroom. Because of the burns he had suffered a week earlier, the boy's legs had become swollen and infected, and blood and pus were oozing from them.

The boy's mother — who has also been charged in the case, and who cannot be identified because of a publication ban to protect her children — had been treating the boy with a first-aid lotion and dressings.

Police reported that a physician said if the boy had not been treated then, he might have died. The physician told police that amputation might also have been necessary.

The boy also was suffering from fractured ribs, a broken pelvis, partial paralysis of one arm and brain trauma, court was told.

Budgell left the hospital after the boy was taken to hospital, and was arrested soon after in Nova Scotia. He insisted he had not be running from the scene. Budgell has been held in custody since January.

The Crown, which described the case as an extreme case of failing to provide the necessities of life, is recommending that Budgell spend three years in prison, beyond the time he has already served.

The defence agrees with that submission.

Budgell is expected to be sentenced next week.