A NURSERY WORKER accepted acting with “reckless disregard” that left a baby suffering from bruises after a night in her care.
Jenna Paterson, 21, appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court on Friday where she admitted responsibility for bruises the baby was left with after she was asked to babysit for a couple she met at the RAF Lossiemouth childcare centre where she worked.
Paterson had been asked to care for the child on December 12 – but, the court learned, problems quickly transpired when she attempted to phone the father at 8pm to say the baby was “unsettled”.
Fiscal Kevin Corrins told the court that the father’s phone signal was too poor for him to reply – and it was only after leaving the party he was attending that he noted 10 calls from Paterson between 8.30pm and 11.30pm. When the couple called back, Paterson informed them that the baby had been “scratching her own arm during the evening”.
It was the following morning, the court was told, when the mother changed the baby’s nappy that the bruising to her right thigh and both arms became apparent. The child was taken to Dr Gray’s where the parents were advised to take her to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital for further checks.
Mr Corrins told the court that Paterson “accepted she had been rough on the child”, adding “She had pushed down and placed too much pressure on the infant’s arms. She said the bruise to the baby’s leg was caused while the nappy was being changed”.
Paterson, who is from Burghead, admitted a charge of assaulting the baby – but Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov accepted that she had not deliberately set out to harm the child.
She ordered Paterson, who left the employ of the nursery after the incident, to complete 135 hours of unpaid work.