Teacher denies hurting toddler

A nursery school teacher has appeared in court accused of breaking a toddler's arm.

Helen Lamb, from Cheadle Hulme in Greater Manchester, denies causing grievous bodily harm to a 20-month-old boy.

It's alleged she broke the boy's arm by pulling him roughly at a nursery school where she was teaching in January last year.

At Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, a former colleague of Helen Lamb told how she had previously reported her to the nursery manager because of the way she treated another child.

Rough

Lisa Dare said she had seen her colleague drag one child by the wrist and shove another one down roughly by the shoulders.

Ms Dare was suspended together with Helen Lamb after the boy's arm was broken.

The two women had been working together, in charge of a room of about nine toddlers at the time of the alleged assault.

Lisa Dare told the court she noticed there was something wrong with the child when she returned from her lunchbreak.

The arm had been grabbed hard with excessive twisting force

Sue Klonin, prosecution

She said he had been sleeping when she left but that when she returned she noticed he flinched when she touched his arm.

She said she reported the problem to the manager of the nursery, Brenda Purvis, who decided not to call a doctor or the boy's parents.

For the prosecution, Sue Klonin said the broken arm could not have been an accident because any adult supervising him would have heard him cry in pain.

"The arm had been grabbed hard with excessive twisting force. It would have caused a great deal of pain," she said.

Pain

"It would have required a great deal of force. It would have caused him to cry out in pain for a significant time."

The fracture only came to light after the boy's father collected him that evening.

The prosecuting lawyer, Sue Kronin, said she believed the assault took place at a time when the child was expected to be having a nap on a bean-bag.

"He may perhaps have not wanted to remain there and she must have pulled him back in a rough way so that he would take his rest and leave her undisturbed," she said.

The case continues.