Emma Back, who left her dead baby to rot in his cot, wept as she was allowed out of jail to lay his tiny body to rest.

Sixteen months after her crack addict boyfriend Aaron Goodman murdered one-year-old Sam, Back - who was jailed for neglect and conspiring to prevent his burial - watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

Handcuffed, she wiped away tears before returning to Holloway prison in London.

Back, 22, formerly of Park Road, Bexhill, tried to keep the burial a secret from her parents, who were alerted by an anonymous phone call.

Her mother, Brenda Kingshott, said: "Emma didn't want us to come to the funeral out of spite because we have disowned her."

Mrs Kingshott said the family had wanted Sam laid to rest in Peacehaven cemetery next to her sister's husband.

Back sobbed as baby Sam's coffin was lowered into the ground.

Handcuffed and flanked by prison guards, she threw a bunch of flowers into the grave.

After the short ceremony, Back, 22, was escorted back to Holloway, where she is serving three-and-a-half years.

Back's parents were forced back from the graveside by prison and cemetery officials and had to watch from several metres away, out of earshot.

Raymond and Brenda Kingshott were devastated by the death of their grandson. They said their daughter should have been jailed for ten years.

Sam's body lay ignored in his blood-spattered cot until the Kingshotts and Goodman's parents, Ian and Paula, alerted the police when no funeral arrangements had been made after 18 days.

Yesterday, 16 months later, Back tried to bury Sam without them and police were called in as council officials questioned how the family had found out.

Fifteen mourners had waited on tenterhooks for Back's arrival in a silver people carrier from Holloway.

An anonymous tip-off by a sympathetic caller had been the only way his grandparents had been able to lay Sam's favourite teddy bear on his coffin.

Our reporter and photographer, invited by the family, were told to leave Bexhill cemetery by police.

Mother and daughter ignored each other as Back wept quietly by his graveside.

Mrs Kingshott broke down in tears after her estranged daughter was led away to prison.

She said: "We just had to give Sam a good send-off. I wanted to put his teddy on his coffin. I made it for him.

"You would have thought she could have put it all behind her for one day and told us, just for his sake.

"His family and friends so desperately wanted to see him laid to rest properly. I didn't believe those tears. They were just for show."

A female vicar conducted the short service attended by Back and her guards. Her words were lost to the rest of Sam's family, unable to hear from a distance.

Mrs Kingshott was supported by close friends and two of her four sisters, one of whom, Josie Bolton, had travelled from Devon for the day to pay her respects.

Sam's ten-year-old cousin Louise was allowed a day off from her Newhaven school and was led away sobbing after the service.

Buried alongside Sam in a clear, plastic bag was his white, hand-sewn teddy with his initials on and a poem written by family friend Vikki Bashford, 15.

There was to be no wake after the service. The family was keen to go home and begin to rebuild their lives.

But anger and bitterness over Sam's treatment in his short life and Back's part in his death were still evident.

Mrs Bolton said: "I just can't understand how she was allowed to take charge of the arrangements after what she did.

"They don't even allow people to vote in prison. It just seems incredible that she did what she did and still has these rights."

The stress of the two-week trial of Back and her then boyfriend Goodman, had taken its toll on her stepfather, Ray.

In the final days of the trial he began to complain of chest pains and he collapsed at court from a heart attack. He remains on an urgent list for a triple heart bypass.

The family were dealt another blow when they learnt Back had the power to commission a gravestone, something Mrs Kingshott felt she was in a better position to do.

She said: "We just wanted to put something up, a plaque or a memorial to remember him by. But she is the registered grave owner."

Despite their obvious grief, Mrs Kingshott was keen to send a message to other grandparents, families and neighbours.

She said: "Out of all this we want friends, neighbours, families, whoever, to report their worries to social services if they are concerned about a child. Nine times out of ten they might just be saving a child."

Back, 22, had become a regular user of crack cocaine after her boyfriend Goodman introduced her to the drug, infamous for inducing violent mood swings.

She said she smoked the drug twice a week, using Goodman's pipe.

Goodman maintained his innocence throughout the trial, suggesting Back could have killed Sam and he had tried to resuscitate him. But a jury convicted him of delivering a blow to Sam so hard it ruptured his bowel.

Back is expected to serve at least two years of her three-and-a-half year sentence. Her family say they will never see or speak to her again.

Mrs Kingshott said: "We don't want any more to do with her. She had another baby before the trial started and we just want him as far away from her as possible."