A YOUNG Worcester mother has been accused of causing her 15-month-old daughter unnecessary suffering by stubbing out a lighted cigarette on her back.

Eighteen-year-old Charlotte Sutton denies cruelty, claiming that the end of a cigarette fell off and dropped into the child’s clothing.

She was questioned after an incident on May 31 last year when grandparents Pauline and Joe Eaton collected the child at a rendezvous in Worcester’s City Walls Road, said Peter Grice, prosecuting. They called in social services after seeing three marks on the baby’s back.

Showing pictures of the marks to a jury at Worcester Crown Court yesterday, Mr Grice alleged it was the case of a mother inflicting cigarette burns on her baby. Consultant paediatrician Dr John Scanlon examined the child on June 2 and said it was highly unlikely that the burn marks had been caused accidentally by contact with hot ash.

Pauline Eaton told the court that the baby resulted from a relationship between Sutton and her 24-year-old son Carl.

The grandparents had looked after the child on several occasions because Sutton, of Cranham Drive, Warndon, Worcester, said she was tired and could not cope. On another occasion, Mrs Eaton said she had a telephone call to say that Sutton was in hospital suffering from an overdose.

She was given a note addressed to Carl which again said Sutton could not cope and asking the grandparents to have the child again. Questioned by Adam Western, defending, she agreed that Sutton had not taken an overdose but had taken too many painkillers because she was suffering from earache.

She denied dictating a note in which Sutton agreed to hand over the child. Mr Western said the plea for help in the note to Carl was because Sutton had moved into a new flat and there was no heating or hot water.

The trial continues.