A young mum has been left sickened after a thief stole her 10-month-old baby daughter's tablet computer as she slept in a hospital bed.
Little Sapphire Merriman suffers from a rare genetic condition and was having treatment at the Royal Manchester Hospital when the theft occurred.
As she slept attached to a drip, her £300 Samsung Galaxy tablet was snatched from her bedside table.
Her mum Jessica Booth, 20, had been dozing beside her daughter at the time.
She had bought the device to distract Sapphire when she has to undergo medical procedures, and said the little girl loved to play on the computers piano app.
"How can they do something like that? It makes me think that I can't really trust anyone," the distraught mum told the Manchester Evening News.
"It's a children's ward. I just hope whoever took it hands it back. She loves playing with it. She was on it every day."
Jessica, who herself has spina bifida, explained that Sapphire has a condition called MCADD, which makes it hard for her body to break down fatty acids. As a result, she has to go to hospital every month or so to be fed through a tube when she becomes too poorly to eat.
She said that she has now stopped taking her own spina bifida medication to ensure she is never asleep while her daughter is in hospital.
"I would rather be in pain than risk it," she said.