A Forest Gate mother who tried to sell her baby to a childless couple sobbed as she was jailed for seven years today.

The 29-year-old Indian woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed to sell her 11-month-old daughter for �35,000.

She and the Pakistani man who brokered the sale both denied conspiracy to commit child cruelty and slavery charges but were convicted after a trial.

The man, 48 and an estate agent in Ilford, was described as the “main mover” in the offences and was handed a nine-year jail term.

The mother’s husband, 31, was acquitted of similar offences.

Sentencing at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Lindsay Burns told the pair: “I am satisfied with what I have heard that the key motive for both of you was financial gain and that the baby and its future was to be sacrificed to this end.

“The sale conducted by both of you can only be described as ruthless and callous. It is unthinkable in a civilised society.”

The baby girl was taken by the two for a handover at the Viking Hotel in Romford Road, Stratford, last September 22.

It followed a series of telephone calls with journalists from a Sunday newspaper posing as a childless couple.

But police, who had been tipped off by the undercover reporters, were waiting in the next room and swooped before the transaction could take place.

The child has since been taken into the care of Newham social services.

The businessman had earlier told a friend he had wanted to sell a child he claimed was his daughter and it was this friend who told the newspaper.

During a two-week trial earlier this year, the businessman was said to have promised a name change and a fake birth certificate to the two prospective parents.