A BABY - whose parents were both in jail when she was born - is to be adopted because of their lengthy criminal records.

Judge Simon Wood even refused to allow the baby to be cared for by the cousin of her mother - saying the risks of her remaining with her natural family were "too great".

Her mother and father have fearsome criminal records and a history of chaotic lifestyles fuelled by drink and drugs.

South Tyneside Council was granted an adoption order and the girl will now grow up in a new family.

The judge said the mother had spent much of her childhood in care and had 22 arrests to her name and convictions for assault, drunkenness and street robbery.

Aged in her early 20s, she gave birth to her daughter, her first child, whilst serving a two-year sentence for a mugging.

The father, who is ten years older than her, has a worse record of increasingly violent behaviour.

He has been convicted of 95 offences, during 45 court appearances, and was also in jail when his daughter was born.

After initially demanding they be allowed to bring their daughter up, the couple eventually accepted she could not live with them.

However, the mother's cousin put herself forward, saying she would look after the little girl with her other child.

Judge Wood described the cousin as "a decent, wholly competent and meritorious young mother".

But he ruled the risk posed by the baby's father meant she must be adopted outside her biological family.

For the mother, the little girl was a "much loved and much wanted" child and her pregnancy had been planned, said the judge.

The father said he was determined to turn over a new leaf and felt a strong commitment to his role as a father.

But the judge said he was not prepared to "experiment" with the baby girl's future.

The risk the father posed to his daughter, even in the cousin's care, would be "very real", he told Newcastle Family Court.

Judge Wood accepted that adoption was very much "a last resort".

But he ruled: "I unhesitatingly conclude that there is no realistic possibility of (the girl) being safely placed in the cousin's care.

"That is not through any risk from her but from risk principally from her father."

The judge formally placed the baby girl in care and authorised the council to place her for adoption.