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Child left bruised after being swung in cot at £1,200-a-month nursery in Fulham

Amina Sharmin admitted assault: Jeremy Selwyn
Amina Sharmin admitted assault: Jeremy Selwyn

A nursery worker at a £1,200-a-month private day care centre has been convicted of assaulting a young child while trying to get them to sleep at nap time.

Amina Sharmin, 33, was caught on CCTV swinging the child’s cot back and forth and repeatedly pushing the youngster’s head down with a blanket at the Bright Horizons Fulham Day Nursery and Preschool.

Westminster magistrates’ court heard the child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered bruising to the ear which was spotted by their parents.

Bright Horizons is one of the country’s largest private childcare providers with a network of 300 nurseries.

Bright Horizons Day Nursery in Fulham (Google)
Bright Horizons Day Nursery in Fulham (Google)

The Fulham branch, which was rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2017, charged the family about £1,200 per month for three days’ attendance every week.

Sharmin, from Fulham, was sacked after the incident came to light and pleaded guilty last month to assault by beating.

She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and must pay £200 compensation to the family of the child and £85 in costs.

Footage played in court showed Sharmin repeatedly swinging the wheeled evacuation cot from left to right.

Malachy Pakenham, prosecuting, said he could not “point to a single incident” where the child had been injured but the video showed Sharmin “pushing the child’s head into the cot, vigorously swinging the cot and putting a blanket repeatedly over the child’s face”.

He said: “You can see the child’s head swinging within the cot and on one occasion it looks like its head has hit the side of the cot. That looks the likely cause of the bruising to the child’s ear.”

The nursery at the centre of the case can be identified today for the first time following an application to the court by the Standard. The lawyer representing Sharmin, who had worked at the nursery for nearly four years, told the court that rocking a child to sleep in the cot was “accepted” practice.

But a spokesman for the nursery said: “This is categorically not how our staff are expected or trained to treat the children entrusted to our care. There is no possible justification for this individual’s behaviour. Our priority is always the safety and happiness of the children.”

The nursery has said the cots remain in use as safety equipment but has “clarified our expectations to staff that they do not use evacuation cots to rock children to sleep”.

The court also heard that Sharmin, who says she had a headache that day but was told to come to work because of a staff shortage, has apologised to the family and was “mortified” by her actions. District judge Nina Tempia told Sharmin: “There was a complete lack of judgment.”

The nursery said it “strictly adheres” to Ofsted requirements on ratios of staff to children and has conducted a full investigation into Sharmin’s claim that the centre was short-staffed that day.

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