A JUDGE sentencing a woman who intended to kill herself and her young daughter by jumping in to a canal has said she should be given sympathy not condemnation.

Judge Peter Openshaw QC said Ruksana Hashim, 35, of Alexandra Road, Blackburn - who pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child under 16 - needed help as he gave her to a two-year community rehabilitation order.

The mother-of-two, who suffers from acute depression, took her daughter to the Leeds and Liverpool canal next to The Moorings pub, in Bolton Road, on April 22, last year.

Preston Crown Court heard she then told her daughter they had to jump in together.

The girl admitted afterwards she was "really scared" and could not breathe or swim.

The pair were rescued by 16-year-old Paul Swift, of Birch Hall Avenue, Darwen, who had been walking past with his girlfriend.

He jumped into the water to help but she told him to "go away." He then saw what he thought was a red coat floating in the water but which turned out to be Hashim's daughter.

The teenager managed to get both of them on to the bank and they were taken to hospital.

Since then Hashim has received psychiatric treatment at Queen's Park Hospital and was said to be improving.

But the court also heard she had gone to the canal on two previous occasions with the intention of jumping in but was thwarted both times.

Mr Openshaw said: "There's no doubt in my mind this offence was committed at a time when the defendant was suffering from serious mental illness. The depression was fuelled by marital strains and difficulties within her extended family. When she jumped into the canal it was not in my judgement an act of wickedness but an act of desperation. Her pitiful, wretched condition should warrant sympathy and understanding rather than condemnation."

He said that although Hashim was improving, there was always the risk of a relapse, adding: "She is fully co-operating and it seems incredible to her that she could behave in that way. She and her husband have been reconciled and the family unit is being rebuilt."

She was given the rehabilitation order with the condition she continued to receive psychiatric treatment.

Jacqueline Atkinson, clinical psychologist and senior lecturer in public health and health policy at Glasgow University, said: "I think there is general recognition that depression can make people do things they would not do if not depressed.

"One thing you get in depression is a sense of helplessness and despair and a sense that the world is just an empty place and the future is empty."