A mother has taken a Queensland daycare centre to court, claiming her baby was attacked by an older child and left with “shocking” bruises while unsupervised.
The family of seven-month-old Jack say he was allegedly attacked when staff at a Moreton Bay childcare centre left him unattended to change another baby’s nappy.
Mother Angela Swindells claimed the childcare centre downplayed how badly Jack was injured when they informed her of the incident in August 2018.
She said she got the fright of her life when she picked up her child.
“It looked like the child had gouged out his eyes, beaten him on the arm and had used a wooden jigsaw puzzle to stamp down on his head,” Swindells told 9News.
“It’s quite traumatising to think that you put your trust in a childcare centre to look after your child and you pick them up, and they look like that.”
She claimed Jack was left with black eyes, bruises and scratches.
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Swindells claimed staff initially told her a supervisor was in the room when the incident occurred.
The centre later admitted in an email that the children were unattended.
“This took place when the educator supervising went to change a child’s nappy, despite having adequate staff for the amount of children, we must be more mindful of when to carry out other tasks,” the email said.
The centre responded to requests for comment by saying: “At the time, we were fully compliant with legislated child-to-staff ratios, and staff were immediately aware of the incident and administered appropriate first aid, and parents and the regulatory authority were notified, resolving the issue.”
Shine Lawyers, which is representing Swindells, said it had seen an increase in these kinds of cases.
“It’s quite alarming to see the number of cases that are coming through, especially these ones where it’s dealing with children being attacked by the children or falling off with play equipment,” Sharntiesha Hogan from the firm said.
