A three-year old child has been filmed smoking in his bedroom and around the house.
The little boy's mother claims she did not realise he was smoking, but a family friend has suggested the boy looked like he knew what he was doing and had been smoking for a while.
The case came to light when the family friend took video footage of the child smoking and inhaling on a video phone and showed it to Social Services.
The boy was apparently familiar with cigarettes and knew how to use a lighter and inhale.
It has been claimed he was allowed to smoke in his bedroom and around the house.
The boy’s mother Kelly Marie Pocock, 24, was given a 40-week jail sentence – but it was suspended for two years after a judge said her children had suffered enough.
Instead Pocock has been attending parenting classes to teach her basic parenting skills.
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard social workers were shocked when they saw the mobile phone video.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees said: “The video demonstrates the boy placing a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it with a lighter and sucking. He was drawing smoke clearly into the lungs and 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’s clear that the boy, at the age of three, knows what to do with a lighter and cigarette.â€
