A teenager has been locked up after she scarred her 15-month-old daughter for life by repeatedly stubbing burning cigarettes out on her back.

Charlotte Sutton, 19, burned the little girl's naked skin three times with a cigarette after she became "stressed out" when the child began to cry.

Sutton, from Cranham Drive, Warndon, shrugged her shoulders as she was sentenced to nine months in a young offenders' institute at Hereford Crown Court today.

Sentencing, Judge John Cavell told her: "You quite deliberately applied a lighted cigarette to a 15-month-old child.

"The only sentence this court can pass is a prison or custodial sentence."

The court heard Sutton - who chain-smoked 10 cigarettes in 20 minutes outside court before being locked up - assaulted her daughter in May last year.

The girl was being cared for by her father at his home in Worcester when the injury was spotted by the child's grandmother.

She raised the alarm after spotting three red marks on the infant's back as she changed the girl's nappy and alerted social services who called in West Mercia Police.

Sutton claimed the burns were inflicted accidentally, but consultant paediatrician Dr John Scanlon, who examined the girl on June 2, told the court that was "highly unlikely".

Last month a jury took just one hour to find Sutton guilty of child cruelty after a two-day trial.

Several members of the jury gasped in horror and two even broke down in tears when they were shown pictures of the little girl's injuries.

The child is now being cared for by her grandparents.