When parents entrust their child to a crèche, there is complete trust in the nurses. They who have to look after and take care of the apple of their eyes. The director of a nursery in Jemeppe-sur-Sambre and one of her employees did not do so, however, between 2011 and 2015 for one, 2013 and 2016 for the other.
These two women abused the children in their care. Parents filed a complaint, they were also denounced by a trainee, then checked by the ONE and the police.
A dad who came to pick up his 10-month-old daughter in April 2012 found that she had been locked in the toilet by the nursery manager because she was preventing other infants from napping. The police went to the scene later in all discretion and witnessed a scene during which the second defendant was screaming at a baby, before grabbing him by one leg to put him back on the changing table. Other facts of deprivation of care and negligence are mentioned: insufficient food rations, children not changed or washed in cold water, incessant screaming of supervisors, children isolated because of their tears, force-feeding of infants until vomiting, children left to their own devices, etc.
They changed jobs
This Friday, the prosecution requested, before the criminal court of Namur, sentences of two months in prison and fines of 50 euros accompanied by a simple reprieve against these two childcare workers. Both are being prosecuted for abuse.
Exceeding the reasonable time was invoked in this case, the investigation having made no progress for nearly five years. The lawyer for the director of the crèche underlined the prescription for certain facts and pleaded acquittal for others.
Counsel for the employee, for his part, pleaded a simple conviction, considering that the proceedings are inadmissible and that the reasonable time has expired. The two defendants have since changed career paths.
The court will deliver its judgment on December 23.
BELGIAN