Brutal boss of nursery spared jail for assaults on children
Outrage as sheriff says job needed ‘patience of a saint’
A SHERIFF was criticised as ‘out of touch’ yesterday for sparing a brutal nursery owner jail and saying it would take the ‘patience of a saint’ to look after the children she abused.
Sheila Davies, 59, slapped youngsters on the head and body, force fed them until they were sick and dragged one out of a bunk bed. Another was struck with a belt.
She was found guilty of six assault charges stretching over a period from 1993 to 2001, but maintains that she did not harm the children.
At Aberdeen Sheriff Court, she was ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work in the community over the assaults, took place at an address in the city.
Explaining the decision, Sheriff Philip Mann said that he was minded not to impose a prison sentence because Davies had been dealing with ‘difficult’ and ‘damaged’ children.
He told her: ‘I appreciate that you had taken on a very onerous task in helping to bring up children from difficult backgrounds.
‘These were children that were fractured and damaged before they came into your care.
‘It would take someone with the patience of a saint to look after these children without overstepping the mark. The offences in this case are not the most serious charges but they became more serious in that you were in a position of trust with these children.’
A furious victim had to be calmed by police as she stood screaming and shouting outside the court building following the outcome of the case.
The woman, who went into Davies’s care at the age of four, said: ‘Twenty-two years I’ve been living with this. Seventeen statements and six charges found guilty and she still doesn’t go to jail. It’s a joke.’
The National Association for People Abused in Childhood attacked the sentencing decision as ‘out of touch’.
A spokesman for the charity said: ‘This goes against the high-profile work done in recent years to show the prevalence of child abuse and the damage that it causes which can go on into adulthood.
‘It undermines faith in the criminal justice system. It’s an insult really and makes light of the seriousness of the offences.’
The spokesman added: ‘There needs to be a review of that decision not to award a jail sentence in the light of the sheriff’s remarks, which indicate a total failure to understand the impacts of those crimes.’
A spokesman from NSPCC Scotland said: ‘Abusing a child is completely unacceptable no matter what the circumstances are and it is right that Davies faced the criminal courts for her disgraceful actions.
‘This nursery teacher was in a position of trust and the children should have been in a safe an caring environment.
‘It’s vital that people who work with and look after children are subject to the highest possible standards of care and profeswhich sionalism. The most important people in this case are the victims and we hope they are receiving support to overcome the trauma of what happened to them.’
Davies, from Aberdeen, once co-owned and ran All Stars Nursery in the city but became locked in a legal battle after an inspection in 2007.
The nursery – which was not connected to the case in court yesterday – was forced to close after a string of failures and Davies was banned from working with children.
Yesterday, the court heard that the nursery had shut in November of last year.
Davies declined to comment as she left court yesterday.
During sentencing, her solicitor Bruce MacDonald said: ‘This is a very sad case. She accepts all the people in her care all these years ago were from difficult backgrounds.
‘This will stay with her for the rest of her life.’
‘Youngsters who were damaged’ ‘Undermines faith in justice system’