A PREGNANT woman branded "a disgrace to motherhood" was jailed for six months today after stamping on her five-year-old son's head.

The youngster had an outline of a shoe mark behind his ear when he was examined by doctors, Newport crown court was told where she pleaded guilty to child cruelty.

He suffered multiple injuries including a black eye, swelling to his ear and marks all over his body.

The court was told the boy told the woman's neighbours: "My mam has stamped on my head."

Prosecutor Byron Broadstock said doctors said there was a suggestion the boy suffered hearing loss consistant with bruising to his left eardrum. Neighbours in Newport became concerned for the boy in August last year when they saw the woman, who is in her 20s, leave him on his own at their house.

One witness told police she saw the child in the front bedroom window shouting "Mummy, mummy".

The woman, who is due to give birth in August, was then seen swaying and staggering down the street and the police were called.

The prosecution said when a police officer saw her "she was slurring her words. She was crying and said she had had a row with her boyfriend and was going to visit him."

She claimed someone else had caused the injuries to her son by throwing a bottle at him.

But the boy told police: "My mum's always hitting me." Lucy Crowther, mitigating, was committed when her client had drunk alcohol during her prescription for methadone and Valium.

She said the woman was introduced to heroin while she was a teenager after being expelled from school.

She said her client had been a former victim of domestic abuse and "those who abuse are likely to have been abused themselves."

Judge David Wynn Morgan told the woman the court had "to protect the small and the vulnerable who are unable to protect themselves." He said the home was a place children "expect love and attention" not physical abuse.

The judge said that from reading the pre-sentence reports he got the impression she was someone "concerned for their own wellbeing and someone feeling very sorry for themselves.

"The public will not tolerate mothers who are, in fact, a disgrace to motherhood."