The teenage parents whose abuse left their baby a quadriplegic with severe brain damage have been jailed for failing to get medical treatment for his horrific injuries.

In an emotional hearing at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday, the warring parents of two-year-old Mason Warda hurled allegations at each other. The mother, Jessie Hodd, now 21, was found guilty at an earlier trial of eight charges of child cruelty and neglecting to get necessary medical attention for Mason from his birth in April 1998 to his admittance to intensive care, irreparably damaged, four months later.

Her counsel, Sue Williams said Hodd was almost certainly suffering from post-natal depression at the time of Mason's suffering.

'She was in an abusive relationship. She had gone through a traumatic birth. This is a young woman who needs help desperately,' Ms Williams said.

The infant's father, Benjamin Warda, now 18, but only 16 when Mason was born, was found guilty of one of the charges relating to the final of three episodes of brain damage when he noted the baby's odd stare and inability to control his head, he mentioned it to his mother but did nothing more about it. His counsel, Trevor Berriman said Warda had never denied this and had 'tremendous feelings of guilt.'

But he was at pains to point out Warda was now living with a girlfriend who has three children and 'the police have no concerns over the children he lives with'.

Jailing Hodd for two and a half years, Judge Patricia Dangor said it was an 'extremely sad and tragic case'. She emphasised she was sentencing Hodd only for neglecting the baby.

'It is clear you were a young inexperienced mother, that you were in a relationship in which you were neither emotionally nor physically being supported in the care of your son,' she said.

'On the one hand I have you, a young woman with all these problems and difficulties, and on the other hand I have your son, who has suffered the most dreadful injuries. And what is particularly disturbing is that these injuries and neglect have resulted in him being permanently disabled and, most significantly, he will never be a normal child or a normal adult. He will be mentally and physically handicapped for the rest of his life. There is an increased risk that his life-span will be shortened.

'It is a parent's duty, whether young or old, to put the child's welfare above all other difficulties they may be experiencing and unhappily you did not do that,' said Judge Dangor. 'You put your difficulties above those of the child and that is why you are now facing a prison sentence'.

Judge Dangor jailed Warda for six months and said she was only sentencing him for one offence committed when he was very young.

'You were clearly hard-working,' she said. 'But you were unsupportive of your partner in looking after her and her child. Both parents have an obligation to look after their child whether they are working or not working, and you did not. But I do feel there is a distinction between you'.

Mr Berriman immediately asked for bail pending an appeal but that was refused.