Little Romeo Beckham may be leading the way for increasingly younger children to have their ears pierced, but as one mum tells Women's Editor Linday Jennings, her daughter's insistence on following the trend nearly killed her.

WHEN Abbie Golightly returned from having her right ear pierced, she couldn't wait to show her friends. She was ten years old and had sneaked off behind her mum Vivian's back, knowing that she would not be allowed to have the top of her ear pierced.

It was August 9, 2001, a day that is now etched on Abbie's memory. The trendy piercing, which cost £2.50 including the stud, looked great for approximately four hours. But by the evening, the top of her ear had begun to swell up and turn a nasty shade of puce.

Abbie was staying at a friend's house for the night, and returned to her home in Ferryhill, County Durham, the following day, feeling utterly distraught.

"She had begged and begged to get her ear pierced at the top and there was no way on earth I would have allowed her to do it," recalls Vivian, 37. "But she went with some friends and the ear piercer just did it for her without my consent. When she came back home after staying at a friend's she was crying and I said 'what on earth's wrong?' Then I saw her ear, and I couldn't believe how it had swelled up.

"I bathed it thinking it would go down, but it only got bigger. I could barely get the ear stud out because the whole ear had swollen up around it."

Three days after the piercing, Abbie, now 14, went to see her doctor who said the ear was infected and prescribed antibiotics. Three days later, she was delirious with pain and was admitted to hospital. On her 11th birthday, more than a week after the piercing, Abbie was put on an intravenous drip to pump her body full of antibiotics and combat suspected blood poisoning. Her ear was now misshapen and purple coloured and Abbie was hovering dangerously close to death.

"The doctors said the blood poisoning was working through her system and that we just had to wait and hope the antibiotics worked," says Vivian. "I was beside myself. It was horrendous to watch her. She was delirious and her ear was huge, like an elephant ear, and all massive and purple."

Abbie came out of hospital after a week, but returned two days later when her condition worsened. She faced more than another week in hospital before she was finally discharged.

As well as permanent scarring to her ear, Abbie, a pupil at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College, found it was tender and still swollen for months afterwards. She was verbally bullied by the other children at school.

"I used to get called 'alien ear' at school, I still get called it now," she says. "I always wear my hair down now."

Abbie also lost a potential modelling career. Just before she had her ears pierced, an agency in London had shown interest in taking her on their books. But with a deformed ear there was no way they would accept her.

Ironically, while two-year-old Romeo Beckham has started a craze for toddlers to have their ears pierced, it was Romeo's popstar mother Victoria appearing at a concert with an apparent nose piercing which led to Abbie getting her ear pierced. Victoria's nose eventually turned out not to be pierced - she was pictured wearing a fake nose ring - but for Abbie it was all too real.

"I'd had my lower ears pierced when I was about eight years old, then all the piercings started coming out on the tops of ears and in noses, which is what all my friends were having done," she says. "It was just at the same time as Victoria had hers done and everyone wanted them doing."

In September 2003, Abbie had plastic surgery at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough to rebuild the cartilage in her ear. The ear piercer had used a traditional piercing gun to carry out the procedure instead of a recommended needle to pierce the top of the ear and as a result, the cartilage at the top of her ear had shattered. Surgeons took cartilage from the back of her ear to rebuild the outer rim.

"If anyone goes near it now, it still feels sensitive and it bruises really easily," says Abbie. "Even my friends now have taken their studs out."

The family has attempted to sue for the pain and distress caused to them but have so far failed to get the case heard. They are looking at hiring a new solicitor to start legal action again.

Meanwhile Vivian is adamant that children should not be able to get their ears or noses pierced unless there is a consenting adult in the room.

"It's no good having a written note saying you consent because the kids could have written that themselves," she says.

"They should only be able to get it done with the parents in the room. At the end of the day it has left Abbie disfigured and she has mental scars as well. She has been to hell and back."