Gerald Baker and his wife were arrested in Spain

Gerald Baker was sentenced to 21 months and his wife Helene received a 12 month jail term after admitting the offence at Newport Crown Court on Thursday.

The court was told that the eight-month-old boy was taken into care two days after his birth because of 46-year-old Baker's previous convictions.

Baker, who had been convicted of assaults on young girls and a young boy - he had been ordered to register indefinitely as a sex offender.

He had also been convicted of taking a child unlawfully from her parents - an offence of abduction - when he had been having a relationship with an underage girl.

The court was told that Baker's wife had taken their child from Blaenau Gwent Social Services for what was meant to be a two-hour meeting last August.

She had claimed to have separated from her husband and was allowed to take the baby during an unsupervised access visit.

The couple, from Brynmawr, were eventually arrested on the border of Gibraltar and Spain after a tip-off from holidaymakers at a campsite in France.

Because of Gibraltan law - which does not recognise the charge of abduction - they could not be arrested until they crossed the border into Spain.

Authorities became suspicious after 37-year-old Mrs Baker failed to return him to the social services office in Ebbw Vale by the allotted time.

The Bakers pleaded guilty in December at Newport Crown Court to a charge of abducting a child and taking him out of the UK without appropriate consent, and were remanded in custody.

They had denied they had pre-planned the abduction.