A MOTHER who let her scalded child suffer agony rather than take her to hospital has lost her family and gained a criminal record, a court heard.

Hot water from a kettle poured over the five-year-old girl's foot when she was at home in Tang Hall. Sheffield Crown Court heard that she may have been trying to get her mother a drink.

But instead of taking her to a doctor or casualty, the mother-of-three let the child suffer.

"I do know that the injuries she got were very painful," Judge John Bullimore told her.

"You must have known about them.

"Why you didn't get help isn't clear.

"It plainly is serious not to get help for a child."

The court heard that only when the child's grandmother arrived to take the children to see their father and saw what had happened did the girl get the medical help she needed.

It is not clear how long she suffered.

The mother, 28, was prosecuted for child cruelty on the basis that she had neglected to get the child proper treatment and pleaded guilty on the day she was due to be tried in August at York Crown Court.

The case was adjourned for probation and psychiatric reports.

For legal reasons, she cannot be named to protect the children.

Sentencing her at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Bullimore said that all three children now live with their father in Lincolnshire.

"You effectively have lost your family and I have no doubt that on its own is a punishment for you," he told her.

He gave her a court punishment of a community order with 12 months' supervision and 20 days' of specified activities.

He added that although it was a serious offence not to get help for a child, he did not think it appropriate, given the circumstances of the case, to give her a suspended prison sentence.

The mother's barrister, Andrew Semple, said that she had a low IQ and difficulties in communicating with others.

Judge Bullimore said the children's father had left the family home and the mother had difficulty looking after them. She also had a number of problems herself.

Towards the end of May last year, the five-year-old girl burnt her foot with scalding water from a kettle.

On May 30, the children's paternal grandmother collected the children for a contact visit to their father and saw the injuries.