DESPITE her daughter suffering horrific injuries at the hands of a sex offender and bleeding profusely, a mother delayed for hours before calling for an ambulance.

The little girl was rushed to hospital where she eventually had to have an operation under general anaesthetic to repair the damage caused by the brutal attack.

And at Warwick Crown Court, the mother, who is from Alcester but cannot be named to protect the identity of her five-year-old daughter, was made the subject of a three-year community rehabilitation order.

She had pleaded guilty to a charge of cruelty to the girl by wilfully neglecting her 'in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health'.

It arose out of an incident in January when the girl was subjected to a violent sexual assault by Nigel Addison.

Prosecutor William Baker said that shortly after midnight, the mother made an emergency call for an ambulance and paramedics found the girl bleeding severely.

One doctor described the injuries as 'the most horrific injuries I have witnessed'.

Addison, aged 41, of Crooks Close, Alcester, has since been jailed for five years for the brutal attack.

At an earlier hearing the court heard that while visiting the house Addison had gone upstairs and then shouted down to the girl's mother that she was injured.

But despite the obviously serious and painful injuries she saw when she went upstairs, the mother delayed calling for an ambulance for some four hours.

Instead the mother, who had been watching a later-than-normal episode of Coronation Street, used nappies and sanitary towels to try to staunch the flow of blood.

Judge Marten Coates commented that in view of the fact she did not ask Addison what had happened when she rushed upstairs, she must have realised he was responsible, yet had told doctors there had been no sexual abuse of the girl.

Hugh Williams, defending, said the mother had bathed the child and tried to staunch the blood, which worked to some degree, but the bleeding did not stop, and she then did call an ambulance.

He added that at the time she was suffering from depression and had serious psychological problems.

Sentencing the mother, Judge Coates told her: "They are the worst injuries I have seen to a child in my 30 years experience in criminal law. But there is no suggestion you were in any way compliant in the causing of those injuries, or that you ever used violence towards her yourself.

"I am dealing with you for failing to call for an ambulance immediately, and nothing else.

"I am completely satisfied your contrition is 100 per cent genuine and I do not believe for one minute you pose a risk to any other child."