A TEENAGER who broke a little girl's arm by tugging at her in a swinging round game has been spared an immediate custodial sentence.

The 19-year-old Keighley woman, who was caring for her partner's toddler, went to answer her mobile phone and the child wriggled in her arms, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

She pleaded guilty to causing the two-year-old grievous bodily harm on April 7.

Prosecutor Caroline Wigan said the woman was 18 at the time and caring for her 24-year-old partner's two young children.

On April 8, the little girl was taken to hospital and found to have a fracture of her left arm.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, told medical staff she was swinging the toddler in play when the phone in her pocket rang.

She went to answer it and recklessly pulled the child up by her arm.

Miss Wigan said the girl would have been greatly distressed and medical help should have been sought immediately.

The woman said the child went to sleep and she did not realise the seriousness of the injury.

The little girl was now thriving in the care of a relative, the court was told.

But she could remember the incident and had expressed concerns about it.

Miss Wigan said the case was being closely monitored by Social Services and the woman had no access to the child.

The woman's barrister, Peter Hampton, said: "She appreciates her failings towards that little girl."

She was herself mother to a young son.

Judge Jonathan Rose sentenced the woman to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with supervision and 150 hours of unpaid work.

He told her: "In some respects, you were a child yourself, with responsibilities that were perhaps beyond your capabilities."

The woman was doing her best to be a good parent to the child up to that point.

"This was not you using violence towards her. It was an instantaneous, reckless, foolish action in tugging her arm as you have done," Judge Rose said.

The woman was very young at the time, had no previous convictions and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The sentencing brought an end to "a most unhappy episode," the judge said.