‘None of us at nursery mistreated the children’
THE trial of a nursery owner and staff accused of child cruelty has heard details of their police interviews in which they deny the allegations.
The boss of Bright Sparks in Port Talbot, Katie Davies, manager Christina Pinchess and nursery assistant Shelbie Forgan deny a total of nine charges alleging children were force-fed, restrained and manhandled.
The allegations were made by students doing work placements at the Taibach centre, and it is the prosection’s case that there was a “roughhouse” culture at the nursery.
Davies, 32, of King Street, Port Talbot, faces one joint charge of restraining and force-feeding a child.
Pinchess, 31, of Brynna Road, Cwmavon, faces seven charges, one of them jointly, of force-feeding a child, covering a child’s mouth with her hand to stop it crying, and picking up a child by its wrists.
Twenty-two-year-old Forgan, of Mariners Point, Port Talbot, faces one charge of picking up a child by its wrists, and a joint charge of restraining and force-feeding a child.
The three deny all the allegations against them.
Day five of their trial at Swansea Crown Court yesterday heard what the trio said when the alleged incidents were put to them in police interviews.
Davies, who launched the Taibach nursery in June 2014, said she had never restrained a child or force-fed one, nor seen a member of her staff doing so.
She said: “We wouldn’t do that to a child – it’s horrible.”
When asked if she had heard or seen a member of staff acting inappropriately, she replied “no”.
She said she couldn’t explain why the allegations had been made.
The court also heard details of police interviews with Pinchess, in which allegations were put to her that she had force-fed children, had “yanked” them around by their wrists, and had put her hand over the mouth of a toddler to muffle his cries.
She denied any of the incidents had happened.
When asked about an occasion when she is alleged to have scooped up food a child spat out and forced it back into his mouth, she said she would never do such a thing and called it “disgusting”.
She added: “I would never forcefeed any child.”
The jury also heard details of Forgan’s police interview, in which she too denied the allegations against her and said she had never seen such incidents at Bright Sparks.
She said she didn’t have any concerns about what was happening at the nursery, and she was “comfortable” learning from the more experienced staff around her.
The three defendants deny the charges against them, and the trial will resume on Monday.