A teenage mother who inflicted "horrific" injuries on her baby son which left him severely disabled has been locked up for eight years.

Thomas Searle was rushed to hospital with a fractured skull, bleeding to the brain and a broken collarbone after he collapsed in February.

His death was expected but he survived and is now "languishing in hospital" in considerable pain suffering from frequent severe spasms with a life limiting condition, Preston Crown Court heard.

Kayleigh Searle, 19, of Blackpool, admitted being responsible for the injuries but not before seeking to blame an ex-boyfriend - who was arrested - and her co-defendant, Reece Bourne, 19, who turned a blind eye to her cruelty.

The left side of the youngster's brain was so swollen that the brain was pushed across to the right.

A consultant paediatric radiologist concluded the impact would have involved "major force" such as throwing him on to a Moses basket from a standing height.

The trauma was consistent with such possibilities of the head being shut in a slamming door or a stamp to the head on the floor.

Judge Anthony Russell QC said he was so appalled by the level of the cruelty shown to the boy - who is now nearly aged one - that he had to pause for 15 minutes before sentencing the pair.

"His (Thomas) present plight languishing in hospital is so distressing that I felt it necessary to adjourn for some time after hearing the case to make sure that I was not sentencing you in anger, for to do so would have been wrong," he said.

He added: "I am quite satisfied on the evidence available that you, Kayleigh Searle, inflicted the grave injuries that your baby suffered and that your actions are rightly described as cruel.

"It is almost unimaginable that a mother could have inflicted such injuries on her own child, and furthermore quite apparent from all the documentation that you have shown no remorse at all.

"Indeed you have attempted to minimise your own role even to the extent of initially blaming a completely innocent third party who you accused of shaking your son and striking him to the back of the head.

"Your criminality, Reece Bourne, was to let all this go on and do nothing to stop it.

"You know how badly Kayleigh Searle was treating this baby and you should have protected him from her."

Searle, of Troutbeck Crescent, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and child cruelty at earlier hearings.

She was sentenced to seven years in a young offenders institution, with an additional year for admitting to perverting the course of justice.

Bourne, of Harbour Lane, Warton near Preston, was sent to a young offenders institution for three years after earlier pleading guilty to child cruelty.