Student rejects claims she exaggerated child ‘cruelty’
ASTUDENT on work placement at a Port Talbot nursery has denied she is exaggerating claims about the way children were treated at the centre.
Natasha Walsh-Jones says she saw force-feeding, yelling, and a child being grabbed and “thrown” at the Bright Sparks nursery.
Under cross-examination yesterday at Swansea Crown Court she insisted she had witnessed the events, and was not exaggerating.
The owner and manager of the nursery, Katie Davies, and staff members Christina Pinchess and Shelbie Forgan, deny allegations of child cruelty in relation to the Taibach business.
The court heard Miss Walsh-Jones was taking Childhood Studies at college when she attended a work placement at Bright Sparks in November 2015.
She told the jury about one incident Davies, asked her about an email she had sent to the nursery when she terminated her placement in which she thanked the owner for giving her the opportunity to attend the “lovely nursery”.
Miss Walsh-Jones said she had written the email but hadn’t meant it.
Davies, aged 32, of King Street, Port Talbot, faces one joint charge of restraining and force-feeding a child.
Pinchess, aged 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. Twentytwo-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.
They deny all the charges against them, and the case continues.