Child carer Laura Pettitt made baby 'eat own vomit', court told

• Nursery worker "violently shook babies"
• Court told she overfed children for laughs
• Staff say they were too afraid to confront her

A KINDERGARTEN supervisor forced a baby to eat its own vomit and slapped crying children around the head when they were in her care, a court has been told.

Laura Pettitt, 27, deliberately overfed a larger child for her own amusement, and forced a pacifier into one child’s mouth so hard the child's gums began to bleed, prosecutors told Croydon Crown Court, London.

Ms Pettitt, who worked at Little Stars Nursery in Bromley, South London, is accused of cruelty to 10 babies in her care between January 2006 and November 2008.

She denies the charges, claiming the "malicious allegations" were fabricated by her colleagues when they found out she was a lesbian, The Daily Mail reported.

The allegations came to light after a co-worker, Nicola Fiddler, reported her to a child protection charity.

Prosecutor Tana Adkin said: 'When the babies would not do her will, Laura Pettitt would treat them roughly.

"She would shout at them if they wouldn't sleep, would treat them roughly if they wouldn't eat and would drop them from a small height."

Ms Adkin described one incident in which Ms Pettitt allegedly held a "baby's nose and tipped its head back to force him to eat. He was gagging and gasping for breath and eventually vomited"

However, Ms Pettitt "carried on feeding him the vomit that had fallen into the collection trough of the bib he was wearing".

She said the reason Ms Pettitt's alleged crimes were not reported for three years was "the nursery assistants were very young and intimidated by Laura Pettitt".

Ms Fiddler told the court that Ms Pettitt had laughingly force fed normal food to a baby who was on a gluten-free diet.

She also saw her swing a baby into the side of a sofa and leave another crying covered in vomit.

However when Ms Fiddler told her manager, her complaints were dismissed, the court was told.

She told her manager Cass Collins in November 2008. 'Cass told me she didn't know what to do as Laura had been there eight years and there had never been any complaints,' she said.

Critique:
The new revealed one of the thousands of cases related to the welfare of the people in the society. In this case, kindergarten supervisor, Laura Pettit tortures child and babies cruelly. Some examples are forcing the child to eat their vomit, overfeeding the children until the gum of the children became bloody and other. I am very angry with the action shown by Laura Pettit. Kindergarten supervisor should be a person full with filial piety and love. She should take good care of the children which is her main responsibility of a supervisor of a kindergarten. I hope that this tragedy will arouse the society’s attention on the issue of kindergarten license. License to operating a kindergarten should be sanctioned carefully to ensure the people who apply for the license are capable to fulfill the criteria required.