Patricia Krentcil
Patricia Krentcil, from New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to child endangerment after being accused of bringing her five-year-old daughter into a tanning bed. BBC iPlayer

A sunbed-loving mother has been accused of burning her own child after taking her to a tanning booth and charged with endangering a child.

Patricia Krentcil, from New Jersey, is facing a second-degree child endangerment charge to which she has pleaded not guilty.

Krentcil posted a bond of $2,500 before telling the Associated Press that "it's all made up".

Her daughter was five years old at the time of the alleged incident last month. Krentcil told AP that her daughter was burned after being outside on a warm day.

She also claims that her daughter had only briefly mentioned to school officials that she had been to a tanning salon with her mother.

State laws in New Jersey dictate that no child under the age of 14 can use a tanning salon and the owner of City Tropics Salon in Nutley, NJ, denies that she was in the shop.

The owner who only identified himself as Anthony said: "I would never harm a child, I have seven kids of my own. It's just ridiculous."

Police were called to the child's school on April 24 after she complained of pain from a "pretty severe sunburn".

Krentcil is clearly a fan of tanning and said that she has visited them for many years but would never subject a child to the same treatment.

"Never in my life would I endanger my child by putting her in a tanning booth. I'm not dumb," she said before her scheduled hearing. Outside court, she called herself "a wonderful mother."

The dark-skinned woman maintains that although her daughter was in the room, she was not in the booth with her.

Krentcil is to reappear at Newark Municipal Court, NJ, on June 4.