A CWMBRAN couple who locked their toddler in a dog cage covered in faeces will be sentenced today.

Police found the cage in the child’s bedroom with children’s toys, a blanket and a baby’s bottle – also covered in faeces –- in it.

Doctors who examined him also found scratches and bruising, like finger marks, on the boy’s arms, Newport Crown Court heard yesterday.

The mother and father, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty after an unidentified caller contacted social services this February.

Officers found out he was put in the cage at various times, day and night, while the woman – who had suffered post-natal depression – caught up on her household chores, and often left the toddler unchanged.

Two of the boy’s aunts later told police he was described as the ‘devil child’ by his parents, who have two other children, and that his mother seemed detached from him, prosecutor John Probert said.

But when she told one of them she was thinking of replacing his play pen with a dog cage ‘for his own safety’, the aunt became concerned.

Around a month later his parents were arrested and admitted using a dressing gown cord tied around the cage to lock him in it.

When questioned his mother described him as a very active child and said he liked being in the cage, claiming he would watch DVDs while inside and would often leave bed to lie in it.

Defending both parents, Alex Greenwood said the woman suffered with postnatal depression after the boy was born prematurely, meaning she had not bonded with him properly.

The father told officers they were good parents and insisted he had never hit the boy.

But the consequences of their actions had been ‘catastrophic’ for both, he added, as their other children are now in foster care and the toddler had a chance of being adopted.

Judge David Morris remanded both in custody ahead of sentencing today.