Child Abuse and Neglect in Nurseries

A nursery is meant to be somewhere parents consider to be a safe environment. It takes a huge amount of trust leaving their children, and the reassurance is that the people they are handing over the responsibility of their children to, are qualified professionals.  However, only recently we have unfortunately seen in the media how child abuse and neglect does take place in these seemly safe environments. 

Surprisingly the majority of abuse in nursery settings are by females and there has been a number of high-profile cases which have been reported in the media and a number of tv programmes have been aired around female nursery/school workers abusing their position of trust and being convicted of child abuse.

On the 9th May 2022 at Tiny Toes Nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, Genevieve Zofia Meehan became unresponsive and later died due to being swaddled and being placed face down with a harness on a beanbag.  Kate Roughley the deputy manager of the nursery was convicted and jailed in May 2024 for Genevieve’s manslaughter for 14 years. Following an investigation into this nursery a number of other incidents were discovered leading to Rebecca Gregory’s arrest and conviction for wilfully assisting, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing a child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering and was jailed for 3 years.

More recently in July 2024 Roksana Lecka was charged with 25 counts of child abuse at a nursery in Twickenham, Twickenham Green Montessori.  These include 12 accounts of child cruelty, 12 counts of actual body harm and 1 account of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm. 

Back in 2009 another female nursery worker, Vanessa George, was jailed for 7 years for sexual assault and making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children, which she had taken whilst she was employed at Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth.

Whilst safeguarding is in place to protect children unfortunately as can be seen there are examples where abuse does still take place.

If your child has been subjected to physical or sexual abuse whilst in Nursery or an early year setting and there has either been a conviction or a criminal investigation please do not hesitate to contact us.