Nursery manager accused of cruelty

London: A nursery manager shook and slapped the babies in her care and regularly force-fed them until they were sick, a court heard on Monday.

On one occasion, Laura Pettitt allegedly even carried on feeding a young boy with the vomit that had fallen into his bib. The 27-year-old routinely ill-treated children if they did not do what she wanted, a jury was told.

She slapped crying youngsters, put blankets over their heads to make them sleep and forced a dummy so hard into one little girl's mouth it made her gums bleed, it was claimed.

Yet the court heard there was such an atmosphere of intimidation and fear at the Little Stars nursery in Bromley, Kent, that none of the employees dared speak out. Pettitt was a senior manager of the baby room at the nursery, and other younger assistants were scared of her. But it was alleged that when Pettitt pushed a little boy to the floor with her foot with such force that he burst into tears, a brave colleague reported her.

Nicola Fiddler told the nursery's manager what she had seen, but when she felt nothing was being done she called the NSPCC helpline. The child protection charity called police and Pettitt was arrested. By that stage she had worked at the nursery for eight years. Pettitt, a lesbian, will claim she has been the victim of malicious allegations by colleagues who coveted her job and disliked the fact she was openly gay.

Yesterday Tana Adkin, prosecuting, told Croydon Crown Court Pettitt was charged with cruelty to ten babies over a two-year period from January 2006 to December 2008. Adkin told the jury Pettitt was often seen force feeding babies.