A TEENAGE mother from Worcester has been found guilty of deliberately stubbing out a cigarette on her toddler daughter.

Charlotte Sutton had denied causing unnecessary suffering to her young daughter, insisting that the tip of the lit cigarette had accidentally fallen on to the child.

But yesterday a jury at Worcester Crown Court found Sutton guilty.

She was released on bail until sentence.

The jury spent an hour at the end of a two-day trial at Worcester Crown Court deciding the 18-year-old’s fate before returning a guilty verdict.

The prosecution alleged Sutton, of Cranham Drive, Warndon, Worcester, had caused burns to the 15-month-old’s back and shoulder with a lighted cigarette in May last year.

Previously, the trial had been told the alarm was raised by the child’s grandparents Pauline and Joe Eaton after they collected the child from Sutton at a rendezvous in City Walls Road. They called in social services after seeing three marks on the baby’s back.

Sutton claimed that the tip of her cigarette had fallen down the back of the child’s clothing while she was talking to friends outside McDonald’s.

But 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 three years ago.

The grandparents had looked after the child on several occasions because Sutton said she was tired and could not cope.