December 2016
Man jailed for 14 years for series of sexual assaults and rapes of a young girl
Aaron Thornhill – Daventry
08 Thursday Dec 2016
Posted in Northamptonshire, Nursery Worker
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Category Archives: Nursery Worker
Clark Merchant – Gosport
15 Thursday Sep 2016
Posted in Hampshire, Nursery Worker
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September 2016
Nursery manager who worked across Hampshire downloaded child abuse images
A nursery manager was caught with indecent images of children including a video showing a baby being sexually abused
Clark Merchant had installed sophisticated software used to wipe and also recover deleted images normally used by police.
Officers arrested him after his IP address was linked to file-sharing of pictures with sickening titles.
The 33-year-old, of Burnhams Walk, Gosport, had searched for pre-teenage children and used the term ‘daddy and daughter’ when looking for images.
In all, police found 31 images, including a movie, on his Asus laptop and tower computer.
Martyn Booth, prosecuting, said: ‘At the time of his arrest he was working as a nursery manager for a children’s nursery based in Southampton, and that cares for children aged from six weeks to pre-school age.
‘The police conducted a meeting with the owners and operators of that nursery. ‘A decision was made in view of what they had said to terminate his employment forthwith.
‘He does have a long history of working with young and vulnerable people, children in particular, aged from two years up until 18 up and down Hampshire.
‘Many of the young people looked after by him have various problems, and difficulties of a mental nature as well.’
Portsmouth Crown Court heard Merchant is now on benefits. Mr Booth told the court Merchant, who has no previous convictions, had nine category A images – the worst grade – seven at category B and 14 at C.
The film was category A. One of the terms he was searching for was PTHC – said in court to stand for pre-teen hardcore – but Merchant claimed to police he thought it meant ‘police tested, hereby certified’.
Mr Booth added: ‘The crown raises an eyebrow to the legitimacy or veracity of what he says.’ The images were all located in the cache of the computers. Merchant admitted six counts of making indecent photographs.
Recorder Nicholas Atkinson QC imposed an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years on three counts, and a three-year community order on the other three counts.
Merchant must complete a sex offenders’ treatment programme and sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
A sexual harm prevention order imposed for 10 years bans him from contact with children. He must pay £50 costs for the offences committed last year.
Caroline Bell – Cupar
19 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Fife, Nursery Worker
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June 2016
Fife nursery worker jailed for assaults on children
A nursery worker who dangled a child upside down until blood vessels around his eyes burst was today jailed.
In another horror incident Caroline Bell lifted up a child by his ankles, carried him across the room then “dumped” him on his head.
Bell (44), of Lorraine Drive, Cupar, had denied two charges of assault and one of ill-treating children at the Busy Bee nursery in Cupar – now known as Little Beehives.
After a summary trial at Dundee Sheriff Court she was found guilty of the two assault charges, committed between November 1 2013 and February 26 2014.
The Crown said they were no longer seeking a conviction on the ill-treatment charge at the beginning of the trial.
Bell wept in the dock as a sheriff told her: “These are dreadful crimes – there is no alternative to custody.”
Defence solicitor Kevin Hampton said: “She is in employment and will lose her job if she goes to custody.
“There is no real risk of her re-offending.
“She has been through a Scottish Social Services Council tribunal and knows she will never work in this field again.”
Sheriff Simon Collins QC jailed Bell for eight months, and made an order barring her from engaging in work with children in the future.
She said: “These are dreadful offences, not just because of the harm but becaue of the abuse of your position of trust.
“You continue to deny one of the charges and minimise the other.
“There was a compelling case against you involving multiple witnesses.
“The nature of the circumstances are so serious that there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”
During the trial, Dundee Sheriff Court heard from Sian Conway (22), a former worker at the nursery, that she was the whistleblower who flagged up two specific incidents to bosses – leading the cases to be reported to the police.
Miss Conway said: “I was working with Caroline – she was my senior.
“There was an incident involving one of the children on the climbing frame.
“The child had bitten another child and Caroline went over to deal with the situation.
“She picked him up off the climbing frame and had him upside down by the ankles.”
Miss Conway wept as she told the court: “She walked him across the room, dangling him by the ankles all the way.
“Then she dumped him on the floor – she dropped him from stomach level, she just let him go.
“Then she came over to me and had a laugh about it – she made a joke of it.”
Describing another incident, Miss Conway added: “I was on holiday – I only know about it because Caroline told me about it when I came back.
“Before I’d gone away we had been playing with the kids – holding their hands and letting them walk up our legs until they were almost upside down.
“One of the children didn’t like it when he got horizontal, he’d become upset when we did it before.
“She told me that when I’d been off she was doing that with children and she had done it with that child, but he had got so upset that blood vessels had popped in his eye.
“The way she talked about it was as if she was just telling me what she had had for tea.”
The nursery’s owners said they “fully supported” the police throughout the prosecution and that Bell had been sacked when the allegations came to light.
In a statement released after Bell was convicted, Jennifer Martin, owner of Little Beehives nursery, said: “Children’s wellbeing is our number one priority and we fully support the actions of the police in bringing this action against an ex-employee who was dismissed from our service.”
May 2016
Nursery worker held child upside down until blood vessels “popped” in his eye
A nursery worker who dangled a child upside down until blood vessels around his eyes burst faces jail.
In another horrific incident Caroline Bell lifted up a child by his ankles, carried him across the room then “dumped” him on his head.
Shocked co-workers told a trial Bell then “joked” about the incidents and “talked about it as if she was talking about what she had had for tea”.
Bell had denied the charges but was found guilty of carrying out the two assaults at the Busy Bee nursery in Cupar.
The nursery is now known as Little Beehives.
The nursery’s owners said they “fully supported” the police throughout the prosecution and that Bell had been sacked when the allegations came to light.
A former worker at the nursery, told a trial at Dundee Sheriff Court she was the whistleblower who flagged up two specific incidents to bosses, leading the cases to be reported to the police.
She said Bell had been her senior at the nursery, where she was employed for five years before going to work at a children’s hospice in England.
Miss Conway said: “I was working with Caroline — she was my senior.
“There was an incident involving one of the children on the climbing frame.
“The child had bitten another child and Caroline went over to deal with the situation.
“She picked him up off the climbing frame and had him upside down by the ankles.”
Miss Conway wept as she told the court: “She walked him across the room, dangling him by the ankles all the way.
“Then she dumped him on the floor, she dropped him from stomach level, she just let him go.
“Then she came over to me and had a laugh about it, she made a joke of it.”
Describing another incident, Miss Conway added: “I was on holiday — I only know about it because Caroline told me about it when I came back.
“Before I’d gone away we had been playing with the kids, holding their hands and letting them walk up our legs until they were almost upside down.
“One of the children didn’t like it when he got horizontal, he’d become upset when we did it before.
“She told me that when I’d been off she was doing that with children and she had done it with that child, but he had got so upset that blood vessels had popped in his eye.
“The way she talked about it was as if she was just telling me what she had had for tea.”
Bell, 44, of Lorraine Drive, Cupar, denied two charges of assault and one of ill-treating children at the nursery.
After a summary trial at Dundee Sheriff Court she was found guilty of the two assault charges, committed between November 1 2013 and February 26 2014.
The Crown said it was no longer seeking a conviction on the ill-treatment charge at the beginning of the trial
That charge had alleged that she “emotionally abused children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering” by speaking to them in an inappropriate manner and threatening them with physical abuse.
Sheriff Simon Collins QC deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and ordered Bell to appear on that date.
Jennifer Martin, owner of Little Beehives nursery, said: “Children’s’ wellbeing is our number one priority and we fully support the actions of the police in bringing this action against an ex-employee who was dismissed from our service.”
Kevin Muldoon – Dublin
26 Saturday Mar 2016
Posted in Nursery Worker, Republic of Eire
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March 2016
Face of creche worker jailed for sex assault on special needs girl (4)
A creche worker who sexually assaulted and took images of abuse of a four-year-old girl in his care has been jailed for five years.
A court was told that the child, who has special needs, was afraid to go back to the playschool.
She told her mother that Kevin Muldoon, 32, had taken photographs of her “bum” and “pants”.
Kevin Muldoon (32), with an address at Rockwinds, Church Road, Killiney in South County Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to sexually assaulting the little girl and production of child sexual abuse images
The girl was in his care in a playschool at the time of the assault, the court was told.
The victim has night terrors following the attack.
Gardai later discovered more images of the girl sent from his phone to his email address, including images of her private parts and of him with his finger in her mouth.
He admitted he had taken up to 20 pictures of the girl. He described how she took her clothes off on his request while he took the photos.
Muldoon further pleaded guilty to possessing 688 images of child sexual abuse images material found on hard drives and computers during a raid on his premises, his family home and the playschool
The court was told that he kept some of the indecent images in a computer folder called ‘Snakes’ – because his fiancé had an extreme phobia of the reptiles.
Judge Greally sentenced Muldoon to five years in prison and ordered that he engage in treatment while there.
The judge also imposed five years of post-release supervision, and said that Muldoon must refrain from taking any position that will bring him into contact with children.
The little girl’s parents, in a victim impact statement read out in court, expressed how the man’s “despicable and disgusting behaviour” would impact them as a family for the rest of their lives.
They said their daughter had a fear of unfamiliar males and “as a four-year-old girl she was stripped of her dignity and innocence”.
They said the incidents had been imprinted on her mind and that she struggled socially, and also had night terrors. They added they were grateful that their little girl had been able to speak up about the abuse.
Shockingly, it was also discovered how the 32-year-old ‘liked’ the Facebook pages of several creches in the area, giving him almost daily exposure to pictures of the children in the facilities – even after his arrest for producing indecent images
He is currently housed on the E Wing of the Midlands Prison in Laois in a special unit for paedophiles.
Because he qualifies for 25 per cent remission from his sentence he will be released from prison in March of 2019.
Mark Curl – West Drayton
09 Friday Oct 2015
Posted in London, Nursery Worker
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January 2016
Paedophile who worked in nursery spared jail despite haul of extreme child abuse images
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