Mother guilty over smoking boy, 3

A three-year-old boy lit a cigarette butt and smoked it in front of his mother, a court has been told. It was filmed on a mobile and passed to social services by Kelly Marie Pocock's friend, Merthyr Crown Court heard.

The friend earlier spotted him smoking a cigarette and said it looked like he had been "smoking for many years".

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees said: "The video demonstrates the boy placing a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it with a lighter and sucking, drawing smoke clearly into the lungs and he seems to do it with some accomplishment".



"It doesn't cause him any discomfort. He is sat on a chair close to the mother, who is talking on the phone. It is clear that the boy, at the age of three, knows what to do with a lighter and cigarette."

The judge said it was an appalling case and Pocock, from Merthyr Vale, was sentenced to 40 weeks suspended for two years after admitting child cruelty.

But Judge John Curran said he did not jail Pocock because of her "considerable efforts" since the incident.