Childcare Worker’s Horror Moment: Four-Year-Old’s Head Wounds ‘Medically Glued’ Back Together After SICKENING Incident
- A 24-year-old childcare worker has pleaded guilty to recklessly wounding a four-year-old in a NSW daycare centre
- The child’s head was left bleeding after the worker used “considerable force” to put him down for a nap
- The worker was arrested and charged with the crime, and the daycare centre terminated her employment
A former childcare worker has faced court, admitting to a shocking act of recklessness that left a four-year-old child with a gruesome head wound that required medical glue to repair. The 24-year-old, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty to the charge in Bathurst Local Court on Wednesday morning.
In a disturbing sequence of events, the childcare worker attempted to put the four-year-old child down on a stretcher bed to rest at about midday on August 14 at a day care centre in Bathurst. But when the child wriggled and resisted, the worker used “considerable force” to restrain him, causing his head to hit the bed’s plastic corner.
The blow was so severe that it left the child’s head bleeding immediately, with blood transferring onto the stretcher bed. The child was left crying and kicking his legs in distress, yet the worker continued to restrain him for 53 seconds without noticing the bleeding.
Despite the child’s obvious distress, the worker only stopped restraining him when she finally noticed the injury and immediately notified another staff member. The child was rushed to Bathurst Base Hospital for assessment, where his head wound was ‘medically glued’ back together.
Police facts stated that the worker’s actions demonstrated a “disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the child victim”. “By using excessive force that resulted in a head injury with active bleeding, and continuing to restrain the child victim without recognising or responding to the injury, the accused acted in a manner that was reckless,” they said.
The childcare centre stood the worker down on the day of the incident and terminated her employment the following day. About a month later, she was arrested at her Bathurst home and charged at the police station. The case will return to Bathurst Local Court next week for sentencing.
In a brief statement, the worker’s lawyer, Evan Dowd, asked Magistrate Gemma Slack-Smith to adjourn the matter for sentencing, saying it would be “fast and relatively short”.