AP
The tanning addict mum who was arrested for allegedly letting her five-year-old daughter go in a tanning booth has hit out at her critics.
Patricia Krentcil denies she took her little girl Anna to be tanned, and instead claims she is the subject of a witch hunt.
Patricia, mum to Anna and older brother Addison, told a reporter from TMZ: "There's somebody out there for my whole life that doesn't like me because they are jealous, fat and they're ugly. I would never, ever put my daughter in a tanning booth
"Any mother who makes an accusation about me is not a mother because I'm a great mother - I would never do that to my child."
The tanorexic mum first hit the headlines earlier this week when she was arrested after her daughter Anna told a teacher she was burnt while "tanning with mommy."
Her school then called the police and arrested Patricia, who has always claimed that Anna got sun burnt playing outside in the sunshine.
Her husband Rich has defended his wife, despite neighbours telling the press that she went in tanning booths while pregnant with her daughter.
"They're making her out to be a monster,' he told The Daily News. "She just likes it. She's not a crazy maniac where she has to tan every day."
Patricia's lawyer John Caruso says she will be found not guilty of child endangerment: "Forget about the presumption of innocence; my client is 150 per cent innocent. She loves that child more than her whole life. She would never, ever allow her child to go inside a tanning bed."
Anna is still living at home with her mum, but the New Jersey welfare agency is monitoring the family.