A three-year-old boy suffered a “nasty burn” after an iron fell on him in his Bradford bedroom, a Court heard.

His mother, who cannot be named to protect the identities of her four children, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for one charge of child cruelty, which she admitted at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Kirstie Watson told the court the woman, in her 30s, had been at home ironing in the bedroom of her two youngest children on January 2 last year when she “had occasion to rush downstairs”.

She left the iron plugged in, but believed she had switched it off, the court was told. Miss Watson said the three-year-old and his older brother had then gone to the bedroom.

In an interview, she told the court, the older boy said he had turned on the iron and shaken the ironing board, causing the appliance to fall on to his brother, who was on the floor.

He sustained burns to both his forearms – including some second degree burning to his right arm, she said.

The mother treated the burns with toothpaste and the following day took him to see a nurse practicioner. The matter was referred to social services after the defendant showed the child’s burns to staff at his nursery, Miss Watson said.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made the woman subject to a community order for 12 months with a medium-level activity requirement for 30 days,