LONDON (AP) — An unregistered British beautician should be sent to the United States to face trial for allegedly killing an American woman with a botched buttocks injection, a judge ruled Thursday.
Donna Francis has been charged with killing 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew, who died in May 2015 after silicone was injected into her buttocks at a house in New York's Queens borough.
The 38-year-old Francis, who left New York for the U.K. the day after Mayhew's death, was arrested last year on an American warrant. She is charged with criminally negligent homicide and unauthorized practice of a profession.
Defense lawyers argued that she has depression and her mental health could worsen if she is incarcerated in the U.S. and separated from her 5-year-old daughter.
But District Judge Robin McPhee ruled at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court that the severity of the allegations meant "the public interest in extradition is so high that it outweighs these factors."
U.S. authorities have provided assurances that Francis will be jailed for no more than one year if she is convicted.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid will have the final say on whether Francis should be sent to the U.S. Francis was released on bail as she awaits the decision.
Illicit silicone injections have killed more than a dozen people in the United States.
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