A MOTHER who left her three children with a schoolgirl babysitter while she jetted off on holiday has been spared prison to spare them further suffering.

Kelly Ann Rogerson, 24, from Darlington, was told the only reason she wasn't being sent to jail immediately, was that it would cause "further hardship and distress" to her children.

Instead chairman of the bench, Harry Fletcher, handed Rogerson a six month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, a 12 month supervision order, and told her to pay £55 court costs at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court yesterday.

It means Rogerson, also known as Kelly Ann Piggford, will not go to prison, unless she is convicted of another offence within a year.

Mr Fletcher said Rogerson, who had pleaded guilty to three counts of child neglect at an earlier hearing, she had been "irresponsible in the extreme" and advised her to take "positive parenting" classes.

He warned her: "If you are convicted of an offence in the next 12 months you will go straight to prison to serve the sentence we have imposed today."

After learning she had escaped jail, Rogerson hugged her mother, who had watched proceedings from the back of the court.

The father of Rogerson's children was also present, but the pair did not speak.

Rogerson went on holiday to Marmaris in Turkey with two friends on Monday, June 13, leaving the children with a 15-year-old babysitter in a one-bedroom flat.

She had booked the holiday at Thomas Cook in Darlington on June 10, just days after returning from two weeks in the resort.

Social Service in Darlington received an anonymous tip off and took the children into custody. They were later placed with their father's mother.

Rogerson was arrested as she landed back at the Durham Tees Valley Airport on June 28.

After The Northern Echo exclusively reported the case, the story appeared in newspapers around the world and on television.

Chris Bunting, defending Rogerson, said she had been unfairly criticised by the media.

He said: "No actual harm has come to the children. This young woman has been vilified for what she's done here but I would ask the court to consider quite why that's the case.

"Perhaps it is the uniqueness or a perception of a new social problem. I do not consider that what she's done has justified this vilification.

"She has brought up three lovely, healthy children in a clean environment. Social Services are quite happy that the children remain at home."

Mr Bunting said there was nothing in law to say how old a babysitter should be.

He said: "There's clearly a grey area here because when does leaving children with a babysitter become neglect?"

Yesterday a spokeswoman for children's charity the NSPCC, said they believed children should only be left with babysitters over the age of 16, but the charity thought education rather than legislation was the answer.

Passing sentence, Mr Fletcher, said: "The welfare of any child is and should be of paramount importance. To leave three children for two weeks in the care of an underage girl is irresponsible in the extreme.

"As such only a custodial sentence can be justified. Our only reason for not imposing upon you an immediate custodial sentence is because we are reminded of the welfare or your three children. To remove you from your children would further their hardship and distress."

Rogerson declined to comment on the case.