A Wigan couple have been jailed after their baby son was found to have a fractured skull.
Bolton Crown Court was told that Carmen Scally was hounded out of her home by angry neighbours after they found out about the baby's injuries.
Scally and her husband, Paul of Eaton Terrace, Lower Ince both denied deliberately harming their son but admitted cruelty by neglect.
Police could not determine who had caused the injury but were sure that it was not accidental and had happened at the couple's home when they were the only adults in charge of the child.
The baby, who was taken into care when the injury was discovered, has fully recovered and has since been adopted.
Paul Scally, 34, was jailed for 15 months and Carmen Scally, 26, for 9 months for causing cruelty to a chid by wilful neglect.
The couple fought back tears when the court was told that the baby has been adopted and they will never see him again.
The court heard how the pair were frequently drunk in charge of the baby and that Carmen Scally had once been stopped by a social worker, drunk in the street as she bounced the baby buggy off walls and gates. They had a very stormy relationship and although the baby was cared for at first, both had problems with alcohol.When social workers had called round to the house they had found one or other of the Scallys drunk in charge of the baby.
Last Christmas Carmen Scally and the baby went to live with her mother. The baby's grandmother noticed the bruise on his head and called the social services who took the baby to hospital.
A consultant paediatrician discovered a large skull fracture which he said would have caused considerable pain and distress and would have been noticed by normal parents. But the baby had not been taken to hospital at first and it was 24 hours later when the skull fracture was diagnosed.
The court heard that Carmen Scally's life had been a series of tragedies. Her father was an alcoholic and when she was 16 her brother had died. Then, after six years of marriage her first husband had died of a brain haemmorrhage and now she had lost her first child to adoption. On top of that Paul Scally frequently beat her when he had been drinking.
Paul Scally had a criminal record but denied hurting the boy. He had reluctantly agreed that it was in the child's best interests that he be adopted though it had caused him great distress.
Judge Reginald Lovett told the couple, "You can't get away from the fact that the baby got this severe injury. I am firmly of the opinion that only you must know how he came about it.
"Both of you were responsible adults in control of him. The doctor said that the baby would have been distressed and crying because of the pain. You must know where the blame lies and you will have to live with it."