Teacher accused of attacking primary school children

A teacher has gone on trial accused of assaulting two young pupils at a primary school in Aberdeenshire.

The offences are all alleged to have taken place in 2018 and 2019.

The 55-year-old woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, denies five charges of assault, four of them against the same pupil.

They include pushing a boy against a radiator and dragging another by the legs along a classroom floor.

The first witness, a pupil support assistant, described taking photos with her mobile phone of carpet burns on the boy’s back.

She said the boy had been crying and was breaking his heart.

She said she’d been “horrified” by what she’d seen and said other children in the class were “petrified”.

Asked by fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar what the teacher’s mood was at the time, she said: “Angry. But she was always angry”.

The witness described an incident in April 2019 when the teacher sat on one of the pupils with her knees on his arms.

She said he could not move and was screaming and crying and struggling to get up. She described the teachers mood as “aggressive”.

She said she was angry and shouting. Asked why she did not report it, the witness said everyone thought the headteacher in the school was scared of the accused.

She eventually told the headteacher about the carpet burns on the child’s back at a class outing. But she said the headteacher turned away.

The witness said she felt guilty about not reporting the incidents immediately and eventually had to take three months off with work-related stress. She told the court that everyone was scared and absolutely petrified of the teacher accused of the assaults.

Emma Toner for the defence, said the child allegedly thrown against the radiator had never mentioned the incident to his mother. The witness said she believed he never told his mother anything.

Miss Toner asked the witness why she had never immediately reported the incidents although they were child protection issues. The witness said she was too scared to report anything. The trial continues.

The trial before Sheriff Eric Brown, at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, continues.