Moment cruel workers at £2,000-a-month nursery slap and grab special needs children before trying to wipe CCTV
Anbreen Tariq, 45, and Salima Fajal, 40, were caught handling the children aggressively, and at one point it showed Tariq hit a sobbing child with a phone and kicked two others.
Daisy Kell-Jones, for the prosecution, told Isleworth Crown Court that three children were abused at the £2,000 a month day care centre in west London between March and July 2021.
But she argued that CCTV footage, which had been deleted by the pair, may have shown dozens more children being attacked and therefore other charges of child cruelty would be held on file.
The abuse was exposed in July 2021 after Fajal called a three-year-old girl's parents to inform their child's nose was bleeding.
Fajal was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the three-year-old girl's family, and £1630 in court costs.
Tariq, of Ealing, admitted three counts of child cruelty, relating to three children, while Fajal, of Hillingdon, has admitted two counts of child cruelty, relating to two children.
Tariq was jailed for 12 months while Fajal, wearing a flowery white dress, was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years with a rehabilitation activity requirement for 35 days.
When the worried mother rushed to the nursery, she found her daughter with a bruised eye, and redness to her cheeks and nose, Ms Kell-Jones said.
CCTV footage from the nursery's main room was played in court and showed Fajal aggressively grabbing the girl by her left arm, holding her up in the air, and slapping her twice.
But the prosecutor told the court that later that day, Fajal went back to the nursery to destroy the CCTV footage.
When asked about this, she said was was 'curious' to see the footage 'all over again' as she hadn't been shown the footage properly.
The footage shown to the court showed Fajal, who has worked in childcare for over 20 years, holding the girl by one arm as she made her way into the corridor.
Fajal, a mother of four young children herself, claimed that the girl was choking, which is why she slapped her.
But when Ms Kell-Jones asked Fajal why she did not phone 999, she claimed she 'panicked' and 'didn't think properly', adding: 'I kept holding her because she said she needed to go to the toilet, so I rushed her to the toilet.'
The judge, Ms Recorder Annabel Darlow KC, heard evidence as part of a trial of issue before passing sentence.
She asked Fajal: 'Why did you not put the child down after she asked to go to the toilet.'
'Because I didn't want her to wet herself,' Fajal replied.
Ms Kell-Jones said the girl's mother was only called an hour later.
Asked why, Fajal replied: 'I don't normally call after an incident. I normally just fill out reports.'
Ms Kell-Jones said after the phone call, Fajal had told the mother: 'You don't need to come yet. She is having lunch.'
Mandisa Knights, for defence, said there are two videos of the child giving her account.
In one video taken by the child's parents, and played in court, the child said: 'She [Fajal] pushed me. I cried.'
In a victim impact statement, the girl's mother said: 'This has left me feeling hopeless, vulnerable and consumed by guilt.
'The distress has been so overwhelming that my own health has deteriorated. A joyful three-year-old has suffered psychological harm. This will have a long-lasting effect on her confidence.
'Her symptoms at present indicate she is now scared of being on her own. When she is dropped off at any school activity, she asks us to sit nearby and stay with her.
'If they can do this to our daughter, how many other children have suffered in silence?'
The prosecutor said Fajal went back to the nursery later on the evening of July 27 to destroy CCTV footage.
She said the footage was either tampered with or deleted as only 'very short clips of CCTV were provided by the defendants'.
Asked why she had gone back, Fajal said: 'I was just curious to see the CCTV footage.
'I just wanted to see the video all over again after it was showed to me by Tariq that day, because it wasn't shown to me properly.'
WhatsApp messages recovered showed one sent by Fajal which said: 'Good luck talking to the child's dad'.
Another message sent by Tariq to Fajal said: 'Let's back ourselves up.'
Ms Knights said Fajal's actions 'represent the darkest and most shameful period of her life.'
But Kell-Jones added: 'Fajal has told deplorable lies throughout the course of her evidence.
'It is beyond coincidence that the child had a previous accident which also required an ice pack before she came back into the main room.'
The judge concluded that the injuries 'were not caused accidentally', and said 'there were other injuries which CCTV did not capture'.
She said she was satisfied that Fajal intentionally deleted the footage.
Other despicable footage played in court also showed Tariq hitting a non-verbal autistic three-year-old child on the back of his head with a mobile phone and kicking him in the back before he was left crying on the floor.
Tariq and Fajal showed no emotion as the footage was played.
In a victim impact statement read out by the father, he said this had a 'deep emotional and mental impact' on his family.
He said: 'My wife burst into tears when she saw the video. This has created a mistrust in institutions that are supposed to be looking after our child.'
CCTV footage also showed Tariq aggressively holding down a two-year-old boy.
The boy's mother said in a victim statement she was 'absolutely distraught'.
Both defendants had blamed each other for the mistreatment of the children, and both kept segments of CCTV to use as blackmail against one another, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
The CCTV footage eventually came into the hands of the police.
The judge said: 'The CCTV is deeply distressing to watch. What is striking is how causal this violence was. One would have thought it would have been utterly ingrained that one should never pick a child by one arm.
'If Fajal has not realised that after 20 years in child care, it is quite extraordinary.'
She added: 'None of the children in the CCTV indicate any type of behaviour which might for one moment called in to play any of the appalling behaviour against them.
'This was cruelty which you both casually subjected young and entirely innocent to, who were trusted to be in your care.'
Fajal has no previous convictions, while Tariq has two previous convictions for shoplifting dating back to 2006.
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