A baby has died after his mother took him to a nightclub.

Marina Tilby, 26, was at New Quay in Ceredigion in the UK with her sister and three men when she drunkenly fell asleep on the four-week-old following a night out.

Witnesses report seeing Tilby repeatedly throwing and catching son Darian while clubbing before taking him back to a caravan with the men she had met that night.

At 3.30am one of the men offered Tilby his double bed – she put the baby down, then lay next to him and fell asleep.

The baby was found unresponsive lying next to his mum in the early hours of March 31, BBC reports.

Tilby pleaded guilty to wilful neglect and has been jailed for two years and four months in prison.

Judge Paul Thomas described the baby's death as a "dreadful case of maternal selfishness".

Swansea Crown Court heard Tilby was so drunk she could not be woken by her sister who was also at the caravan.

The baby was unresponsive and reportedly had blood in his mouth when he was found.

He was rushed to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth in Wales where he later died.

Prosecutor Catherine Richards said Darian had suffered a heart attack after his mother fell asleep on him, although the judge did state he felt uneasy that the medical evidence couldn't prove a direct cause of death or rule out other causes.

Dyfed Thomas, who defended the mother, said Tilby had been diagnosed with depression following her son's death and has "clearly suffered".

"She wishes to express to the court, the baby's father and her own family her own remorse and feeling of guilt from that night," he said.

"Her grief will fill her for the absence of her child for the rest of her days."

During sentencing, Judge Thomas said, "It is a mother's responsibility, a mother's duty and her natural instinct to put the care and safety of her four-week-old child above all else.

"You completely ignored that duty so you could get extremely drunk on a night-out."