A DRUNKEN mother was captured on CCTV kicking her two-year-old son down a flight of 12 concrete steps.

Toddler Alfie Taylor suffered bruising to the bridge of his nose, forehead, a red mark under his left eye and bruising to his shoulder, lower back and thigh following the incident.

His mother Kate Edwards, aged 24, of Russell Close, Malvern, admitted child cruelty at Worcester Magistrates Court yesterday.

Her defence solicitor, Mark Sheward, asked magistrates to ban your Worcester News from naming the child but they refused following a challenge from our reporter.

We told magistrates our readers had a right to know what this woman had done to her son and that the child was too young to be damaged by any publcity.

Douglas Marshall, prosecuting, told the court that the incident happened outside the home of Edwards’ friends whom the 24-year-old had been visiting with her partner and son on Sunday, September 28.

But as the couple prepared to leave they woke up their son, already described as “swaying and unsteady” on his feet which led him to fall over himself.

But at around 10pm the youngster was filmed being kicked from the top of the stairs by his mother. Mr Marshall said: “She stands him up and positions him at the stop of the steps facing down them. The CCTV seems to show her checking the corridor by the door. She turns back round and stands behind him before she uses her left leg and kicks him or knees him in the back, causing him to fall down the steps. It’s not a violent kick. His mother is then heard screaming and runs after him. Fortunately he seems to only suffer bruises and scrapes. Despite falling down 12 concrete steps the injuries will heal without any long term complications.”

It was ambulance crews who alerted police when they found Edwards to be “drunk and hysterical”.

Alfie is now being cared for by his paternal grandmother.

Mark Sheward, defending, said: “She can’t offer any explanation as to why she behaved as she did on that particular night.

“She accepts she had been drinking that night and there is a common denominator between that and what happened. She can’t recall the incident at all. She was only to see that she must be responsible when shown the CCTV footage during the police interview. She has been drinking to excess now for some years.”

Mr Sheward listed traumatic experiences in Edwards’ own childhood when she was taken into care at five years old, took an overdose at 13, ran away from home and was eventually told to leave at 15.

He also said social services had no record to show that she had been anything other than “a good mother”.

She has had seven appointments with alcohol workers to address her drinking.

He said the injuries her son suffered were consistent with common assault rather than actual bodily harm.

The case was adjourned until Monday, January 5 for a pre-sentence report.

She was granted bail on condition she does not have unsupervised contact with her son, does not approach witnesses and does not enter Wordsworth Green in Malvern.