Two cruel nursery workers were caught slapping and grabbing special needs children before trying to wipe off CCTV.
Anbreen Tariq, 45, and Salima Fajal, 40, abused three children at a £2,000-a-month day care centre in west London between March and July 2021.
Footage shows Fajal, a mother-of-four, grabbing a three-year-old girl by her arm and holding her in the air before slapping her twice.
The girl’s parents became suspicious when Fajal called them to say their daughter’s nose was bleeding, but found her with a bruised eye and redness to her face.
Fajal, who tried to claim she slapped the child because she was choking, then went back to the nursery later that evening to destroy CCTV footage.
Her colleague Tariq was also caught on CCTV hitting an autistic boy’s head with a mobile phone before kicking him in the back. He is then seen crying on the floor.
Family members gasped as footage of the heartless attacks were played out in court, while the two defendants stood in the dock emotionless.
The pair admitted child cruelty offences at Isleworth Crown Court, with Tariq jailed for 12 months and Fajal handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years.
Anbreen Tariq, pictured, of Ealing, admitted three counts of child cruelty, relating to three children
The abuse was exposed in July 2021 after Salima Fajal, pictured, called a three-year-old girl’s parents to inform their child’s nose was bleeding
Passing sentence, Ms Recorder Annabel Darlow KC 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.’
Fajal, of Hillingdon, tried to claim she did not call 999 because she ‘panicked’.
She told the court: ‘I panicked. I just didn’t think properly. I kept holding her because she said she needed to go to the toilet, so I rushed her to the toilet.’
Prosecutor Daisy Kell-Jones asked: ‘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,’ she responded.
The girl’s mother was called an hour later but told her: ‘You don’t need to come yet. She is having lunch.’
When the worried mother rushed to the nursery, she found her daughter with a bruised eye, and redness to her cheeks and nose.
After Tariq hit the boy, the child can be seen on the video being left on the floor
The footage 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
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.
The prosecutor told the court that later that day on July 27, 2021, Fajal went back to the nursery to destroy the CCTV footage.
‘The CCTV within the nursery was not fully recovered. The footage was either deleted or tampered with. The hard drive was destroyed,’ said Ms Kell-Jones.
‘Only very short clips of CCTV were provided by the defendants,’ the court heard as part of a trial of issue before passing sentence.
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.’
Both defendants blamed each other for the abuse and both kept segments of CCTV to use as blackmail against one another.
CCTV footage from the nursery’s main room was played in court and showed Fajal aggressively grabbing the girl by her left arm
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
In a victim impact statement, the girl’s mother said: ‘This has left me feeling hopeless, vulnerable and consumed by guilt’
Ms Knights said Fajal’s actions ‘represent the darkest and most shameful period of her life’ Pictured: Salima Fajal
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?’
Ms Knights said Fajal’s actions ‘represent the darkest and most shameful period of her life’ but Kell-Jones said she had ‘told deplorable lies’ in 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’.
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.
Family members gasped as the footage was played out in court. The footage also showed the young boy crying on the floor.
Tariq and Fajal showed no emotion as the footage was played.
Ms Kell-Jones said: ‘There is distress clearly shown by the young boy in the footage.
In a victim impact statement read out by the father, he said: ‘This had had a deep emotional and mental impact on my family.
‘The way my wife and I found out was not ideal. The first we knew was when Fajal came into our office with someone pretending to be a whistleblower, who we know now is Tariq.
‘My wife burst into tears when she saw the video. This has created a mistrust in institutions who are supposed to be looking after our child.
‘My son could not tell us what was happening because he is autistic.’
‘He was actively abused. For a few months, my son would shake his head and hold his ears. He did this for at least a year after the incident. We were perplexed by this.
‘We had taken him to the doctors because we thought there was something wrong with his hearing.
‘But now we realise he was doing that as a defence mechanism.
‘This was a child who could not speak, and yet it seems he was picked on for that purpose, as well as other children who had similar traits.’
‘Tariq and Fajal were supposed to assist his needs. That is what they were getting paid for. Instead, he was getting abused and picked on.
‘We have been sitting here for the past four years waiting for justice to be done, knowing that the abusers were getting on with their lives.’
‘We had to sit down and explain to his siblings what happened to him. They are now protective of him.
‘If my son goes on a school trip, my wife has to go with him. I had to sit down and explain to the teachers why that has to happen.’ I can’t overstate the impact this has had.’
CCTV footage also showed Tariq aggressively holding down a two year old boy. The boy’s mother, in a victim impact statement, said: ‘I was absolutely distraught.
‘We went back to Somalia for six months to get away from the stress. When he came back, he was still stressed.
‘For about six months after my son left the nursery, he did not want to be away from me. He would wake up, cry, and come to me.’
The CCTV footage eventually came into the hands of police.
As she passed sentence the judge added: ‘The victim impact statements make for very sobering reading and speak to the profound effect relating to the abuse which the children suffered at the nursery.
‘There was an entirely inappropriate use of force which would have undoubtedly caused these children serious distress, pain and comfort.
‘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.’
The pair were arrested in August 2021 but only charged in April 2024.
Tariq was jailed for 12 months while Fajal, was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years with a rehabilitation activity requirement for 35 days.
Fajal was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the three-year-old girl’s family, and £1,630 in court costs.
Fajal has no previous convictions, while Tariq has two previous convictions for shoplifting dating back to 2006.
