Think this mother will get jail time???

She'll probably get off with a warning....

A 26-year-old mother has been convicted of steadily giving her toddler cocaine over 14 months, finally administering a near-lethal dose that left him brain-damaged.

"It's difficult to see what would motivate her to give him cocaine, possibly to stop his crying, or to get him to sleep, or to control him. Was it to punish him or to get back at the father?" Justice Tamarin Dunnet said yesterday.

The Scarborough woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her son, also intentionally fractured a number of her son's ribs over time and failed to take him to hospital for a broken forearm, the judge said.

Cocaine levels discovered in the 2-year-old in testing at Hospital for Sick Children were so high that if he were an adult, he would be in the top 5 per cent of users, an expert testified.

Now aged 6 and living with his father and grandmother in Scarborough, the boy is happy but has permanent brain impairment, family members said outside court.

Yesterday Dunnet convicted the mother of assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, failing to provide the necessities of life and administering a noxious substance.