Babies assaulted at day care centre
2011-02-14 09:44
Johannesburg - A Pretoria day mother is facing two charges of assault, after she allegedly hit a baby on the buttocks, and slapped another so hard on the cheek that the mark was still visible five days later.
Linda Mans of Teddie Winks day care centre in Suiderberg will apparently go to the Hercules police station on her own accord on Monday, said police spokesperson Captain Agnes Huma on Sunday.
Mans wrote a letter to Chantelle Roos and Anton Myburgh, parents of nine-month-old Divan, to apologise for the slap. She said it was apparently intended for her own child.
Mans was also charged with the assault of Keylaene-Maré Schreiber, aged eight months.
The little girl was allegedly hit on the buttocks, legs, lower back and arm "repeatedly and hard".
Hospitalised
Keylaene-Maré was hit on January 10, when she had been with the day mother for barely a week.
She spent a night under observation in the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Groenkloof, Pretoria, to ensure she was not more seriously injured.
Mans told Keylaene-Maré's parents, Daryl, 27, and Bernadine Schreiber, 30, that a woman in her employ, who she could not find, had lightly slapped their daughter because she wouldn't sleep.
Bernadine Schreiber said Mans told her she had to rush to hospital with her mother and leave the children in the helper's care.
"She said she had received an SMS from a woman last year seeking work, saying she could help with children. She said this woman had slapped our child because she wouldn't sleep," said Schreiber on Sunday.
"But there is no detail or proof that there had been a person like that working that day at the nursery school. She apparently chased the woman down the street after seeing my baby's buttocks."
The little girl's father said he had to call someone to go along with him to the nursery school on the day of the assault because he was scared he would do something to the day mother.
Apology
"When the doctor examined my child and took off her nappy, there were tears in my eyes," he said.
They went back to Mans that same day, asking for their money back and removing her from Mans's care.
Myburgh, from Andeon, Pretoria, said on Sunday he was shocked when police told him it was the second charge of assault against Mans.
Finger marks could still be seen on Divan's right cheek on Sunday after he was slapped earlier in the week.
Myburgh showed the day mother's letter. It read: "Oh mommy and daddy. Big sorry for the mark on the little guy's cheek, really, it was an accident. Meant for my own little boy but he ducked and the blow hit the little guy. Feel really bad, really sorry." Her own son is apparently aged four.
Myburgh said when they went to talk to the day mother about what had happened to their boy, she showed no sympathy.
When Beeld called her number, she didn't answer her cellphone.
