Needles extracted from Brazil boy

olice say 30-year-old bricklayer Roberto Carlos Magalhaes confessed to pushing the metal sewing needles into the two-year-old child because his lover told him to while in trances. The rituals were performed over a month supposedly to keep the couple together.

Late on Friday, the child was in stable condition after nearly five hours of surgery to remove the four needles, which were up to 2 inches, said Susy Moreno, a spokeswoman for the hospital in the northeastern city of Salvador where the boy was in intensive care.

“He’s all right, the surgery was a success, he’s doing fine,’’ she said. Dozens more needles remain inside the boy’s body. Doctors will evaluate the boy’s recovery before deciding when to perform at least two more surgeries to remove more needles. Police say they believe the lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, told Magalhaes that the ritual would keep them together, but she was really seeking revenge on Magalhaes’ wife by having him hurt her son.

The bricklayer told detectives that dos Santos would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said.Dos Santos paid to have the needles blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, Santana said.

Magalhaes and dos Santos were both arrested.