A LITTLE boy was left in agony with burns to his hands and legs, a court was told.

And now his mother and grandmother have been convicted of neglect _ with the youngster taken into care.

Details of the appalling treatment emerged at Bradford Crown Court, when the women were condemned by a judge.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said after the boy, then aged only two, suffered the burns to his body his Birkby mother’s reaction was one of self preservation and her mother had acted to protect her daughter.

“Both your actions were designed to ignore the boy’s suffering, to put your interests first and to try and keep social services in the dark,” the judge told the defendants.

“That little boy on my calculation had probably five or six days of acute pain and distress for which he received no sympathy, no treatment and no pain relief whatsoever.

“Finally the light dawned on both of you that treatment had to be obtained and the result was as you feared.

“Fortunately he has made a brilliant recovery, physically that is, and he will, to put it bluntly, now be looked after by those more responsible and more caring for his interests”.

The two women have both been given three-year supervision orders after the burned boy was left in pain for several days without medical attention.

The women, aged 26 and 47, who both live in Huddersfield, admitted child neglect on the basis that they failed to take the boy to a doctor or hospital after he suffered blistered hands and burn marks to his legs more than two years ago.

When the women eventually took the distressed youngster to see a doctor they failed to disclose the full extent of the injuries and it was only when the child was examined that all the burns were discovered.

The court heard that the boy’s mother, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity was advised by other relatives to seek medical attention for her son, but she was said to be too scared of the consequences.

Prosecutor Kitty Taylor said that a doctor discovered five separate burn injuries when the boy was examined in September 2009, but the two defendants had since given various accounts and it was not clear even today exactly how the boy had suffered the burns.

The court heard that the child had not been given any pain relief and five days after being treated in hospital he was still distressed and crying during examination.

The prosecution of the two women had been delayed while family proceedings were undertaken, but both had admitted the charge of child neglect earlier this year.

The judge was referred to various psychiatric reports in the case of the boy’s mother and he was told that her own mother also suffered from limited intellectual ability and poor decision making.

The judge said after the boy suffered the burns to his body his mother’s reaction was one of self preservation and her mother had acted to protect her daughter.