Rex
A teenage mum who was jailed for 84 days for smuggling her baby out of hospital in a bag has been freed from prison.
The young woman had been banned from having custody of the four-day-old child, but hid the baby in a changing bag and walked out of Hull and East Yorkshire Women's and Children's Hospital.
She and her partner were jailed for 84 days for taking the baby, but the mum has won an appeal against her sentence.
Recorder of Hull and the East Riding Judge Judge Michael Mettyear told her: "What you did was wholly irresponsible and wrong."
He added: "You were young, very young, you had just gone through the birth of your child and you were greatly upset."
Quashing her 84-day sentence and handing down a 75-day sentence suspended for 12 months, the judge said that 'mercy' would be shown.
"Although I do not think this sentence is wrong in principle and clearly the district judge was entitled to come to the conclusion that custody was appropriate, mercy can be shown to you," he said.
The unnamed teenager has also been ordered to attend a thinking skills programme and will be under 12-month supervision by the Probation Service, This is Hull and East Riding reports.
The court heard how the baby was to be placed in the care of social workers after an interim care order was ordered by magistrates. The couple then asked for time alone to say goodbye to the child, and were told they could.
Stephen Robinson for the prosecution told the court that the woman and her partner had arrived at the hospital to spend time with the baby, but a after eventually 'storming out of the room' the woman returned, wrapped the child in a blanket and placed it in changing bag. She then left the hospital with the baby in the bag, and was driven away by her brother.
A huge police hunt then followed, and the the mum and her 21 year old partner were eventually found in Malton, North Yorkshire. They had been planning to take the baby to Scotland.
The mum, her 21-year-old partner and her 28-year-old brother admitted taking a child without authority. Her partner and brother were also jailed for 84 days at the earlier hearing.
The woman has previous criminal convictions, and this was the second child has had taken into care.
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust are said to be investigating, and has reassured other parents that it has security measures in place.