IT WASN'T physical torture that the teen couple heaped on the poor toddler.

It was something worse.

The boy, who is just two months short of two years, was stuck to a wall in his home near Lincoln, Nebraska, with industrial tape.

The reason: His 18-year-old mum Jayla Hamm had been partying with boyfriend Corde Honea, 19, and didn't want to be disturbed, the Daily Mail reported.

Hamm even held her helpless son against the wall while boyfriend Honea taped up his wrists, legs and body.

They didn't just tape him to the wall.

The couple taped the toddler's drinking cup out of reach to torment the child.

The child was further taunted when his favourite drinking cup was taped to the wall, just out of his reach.

Worse, the delinquent couple thought the situation was so funny that they took pictures of the helpless boy.

They showed the pictures to a horrified friend who later alerted the police.

Police seized the digital camera containing the photos of the boy.

In pictures shown to the court, the face of the boy was digitised, but the police were quoted as saying that the toddler was distressed and crying while stuck to the wall.

One picture shows the boy straining to release himself from his bonds, his arms bent backwards uncomfortably, hands taped to the wall.

Another shows him strapped to the wall with tape across his body - with one strip of the strong adhesive tape directly stuck to the skin on his legs, the report said.

The toddler straining against the tape that held him to the wall.

Police said the couple, who were "were high after a night of partying", taped the child to the wall for their entertainment - not to discipline him.

Judge Paul Korslund sentenced Hamm to 10 days in jail and two years' probation last month.

The incident happened early this year.

The judge told the mother: "What makes it shocking in particular is there's an expectation that it's a matter of common sense that a parent would protect her child from humiliation and abuse."

The boy has been placed in state custody.

Honea was sentenced to 36 to 60 months in prison for intentional child abuse.

He was also jailed for 24 to 60 months for a separate charge of burglary and 12 to 24 months for possession of a stolen firearm.

Apologised

Before sentencing, he told the court: "I can't fully believe what happened on those days. I take full responsibility. I find it even more troubling that I can do that."

He also apologised to the child, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

"I can't sit here and ask for forgiveness because I can't forgive myself.

"Maybe some day I'll deserve forgiveness, but not today. I've spent a significant amount of time in jail already. All I can say is 'I'm sorry'."

This article was first published in The New Paper.