A two-year-old child was left unfed and with a soaking nappy after spending hours in the back of a car in cold, snowy weather, a Court heard.

Bradford Crown Court was yesterday told how the trusted partner of the baby’s grandmother offered to take the child to a playgroup in Bradford.

The 34-year-old man, who cannot be identified to protect the child, had looked after the baby on many occasions, feeding and changing him, and his mother and grandmother had no concerns.

Prosecutor Heather Gilmore said the worried women alerted police at 9pm when the man had not returned with the baby and could not be contacted. The grandmother’s car was also missing.

Officers found the car at 4.15am the following morning, parked at the back of an address in Buttershaw. The defendant was in the driver’s seat with a woman friend in the front passenger seat. The baby was in a child seat in the back.

Miss Gilmore said the child’s bottom clothing was soaked and he had not been changed for a long time.

He was checked at Bradford Royal Infirmary, but no harm was caused.

The man told police he had run out of petrol and got stuck in the snow and decided to wait until the morning. He said he had fed the baby from McDonald’s and Greggs, but not since 6pm the previous evening.

Sentencing the man, who pleaded guilty to child cruelty, taking a vehicle without consent and driving without insurance, to eight months’ imprisonment, Judge James Spencer QC said it was an “appalling piece of neglect”.