A NEGLECTFUL mother whose two-year-old daughter sustained a serious burn to her foot while at her casual boyfriend’s house concocted a series of lies instead of getting her screaming child immediate medical help.

Preston Crown Court heard how the woman, who is from Darwen but cannot be identified for legal reasons, lied to doctors and nurses about how the child came about the injury, resulting in her receiving unnecessary treatment.

She also lied to police and social services about where she was when her daughter was injured.

The lie – that she had stayed over at her mum’s house – was then reinforced by the child’s grandmother when she was interviewed by police.

The child’s grandmother contacted police four days later admitting she had given a false statement but said she only did so because she feared the child would be taken into care.

Prosecuting, Nicola Carroll said that the child was at the home of the man her mum had been seeing in Darwen when she sustained the contact burn to her right foot.

Although CCTV evidence showed the woman leaving the house around midday and returning five minutes later, Ms Carroll said the prosecution couldn’t be certain the woman had left her daughter alone with the man when she sustained the injury.

However, Ms Carroll said it wasn’t until 12.45pm until the defendant called the NHS 111 service for help. She failed to tell the operator what was wrong with the child, even though she could be heard screaming in pain in the background, and lied further by saying she was at her home address. When she was further pressed on the address she was currently in so the operator could send medical help the defendant said she would call an ambulance herself.

Ms Carroll said instead of doing that the defendant phoned her cousin before getting a taxi to her mother’s Darwen home. When she arrived there her sister detected there was something seriously wrong with the child and organised for the defendant’s uncle to drive her to the hospital.

When they arrived there at 2.25pm the defendant told doctors that she had stayed at her mother’s house the previous night and only noticed the burn when bathing the child at her home address.

Fearing infection and noticing blistering to the foot which was spreading to the toes, the triage nurse put the child on antibiotics.

The defendant had told nurses the child was not and had not been in any significant pain.

When the paediatric registrar touched the child’s foot he noticed she was in obvious pain. The defendant further lied by saying she had applied Sudocrem on the advice of the 111 call handler.

The following day the consultant paediatric confirmed the blisters hadn’t been caused by an infection but more likely a burn injury.

A decision was made to transfer the child to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital but Ms Carroll said the defendant became uncooperative and resistant to any further treatment.

The police and social services were called because of neglect concerns and fears about an unwitnessed accident.

When the child arrived at the children’s hospital she was sedated and the consultant plastic surgeon discovered she had suffered a deep burn which had been caused by an object at a very high temperature.

Ms Carroll said the child continued to be an outpatient at the burns unit for three months but suffered no permanent scarring.

The defendant was interviewed by police on February 20 and maintained she had stayed at her mother’s and returned to her Darwen home the following morning and noticed the small blisters while bathing the child.

That story was initially supported by the child’s grandmother, who said she may have caused the injury by placing a trainer that had been drying on the radiator onto her foot. The trainer was seized for analysis but the child’s grandmother came clean in the interim.

The child’s mother, who is in her 20s, pleaded guilty to neglect on the day she was due to stand trial.

Her co-defendant pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Defending the child’s mother, Clare Thomas said the victim was now living with her father, while the defendant’s other child had been placed in the care of his grandparents.

Ms Thomas said although her client had issues with cannabis, she had vowed to stay single to avoid having any more children.

Ms Thomas said: “She is a young lady who was single at the time. On her own admission and from speaking to her she was struggling.”

Defending the child’s grandmother, Jane Dagnall said her client was worried about going to prison.

Judge David Potter sentenced the child’s mother to a 12-month community order, with 25 days rehabilitation, six months drug rehabilitation and 100 hours unpaid work.

The child’s grandmother was given a 12-month community order, 20 days rehabilitation and 90 hours unpaid work.