The mother of a boy at the centre of an alleged teacher abuse trial has described how he returned from school with “weeping” wounds after being dragged across a classroom floor.
The 49-year old woman, who was giving evidence at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, also claimed the pupil support assistant who revealed the causes of her son’s injuries was left “grief stricken” over the situation.
The teacher, who cannot be named due to legal restrictions, faces four charges of assault and one of assault with intent to injure at a primary school in Aberdeenshire between January 2018 and July 2019.
She denies all the allegations against her.
The court heard the classroom assistant initially lied about the source of the wounds after being quizzed by the boy’s mother in July 2019.
However, the woman was later shown a series of pictures of her son’s injuries by the “grief stricken” support worker.
The classroom assistant, who gave evidence to the court on Monday, said she was “horrified” as she witnessed the boy’s teacher drag him 10 feet across the classroom floor in July 2019, which resulted in “carpet burns”.
She also claims she saw the teacher restrain the boy by sitting on him as continued to teach the primary school class.
It was claimed the boy, who was described as having complex needs, would often kick out and head-butt school staff in the back.
Another incident, reported by the same assistant, alleges that a different child struck a radiator after being forcibly “launched” three or four feet by the teacher.
Questioning the boy’s mother, fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar asked: “You were told about an incident at your son’s school, is that correct?”
She replied: “I would say many incidents.”
Ms McVicar asked: “Did you note anything or any injury on your son’s body and can you describe what you saw?”
The mother said: “I saw two weeping sores on his back.”
‘Children were petrified’: Aberdeenshire primary teacher stands trial accused of attacking children
The court also heard from two pupil support assistants who worked at the Aberdeenshire school during the period of the alleged incidents.
One 56-year old assistant admitted she had been “negligent” in not reporting another incident she alleges occurred March 2019 where the teacher grabbed the boy by the ankles and dragged him back to his desk.
The teacher’s defence solicitor, Emma Toner, asked the woman: “At a meeting to discuss the alleged incident in July 2019 you would know that there was a police inquiry, you knew there was going to be a trial as you were cited as a witness at that trial, and you knew the school was taking child protection issues very seriously – but you did not at that time mention anything about the March 2019 incident?”
She replied: “The two people that I could have gone to within the school were unapproachable. I wish now that I had gone to out-of-hours social work.
“In hindsight, I would have done things differently.”
During re-examination, fiscal depute Lynne MacVicar asked the assistant to clarify whether she thought the March 2019 incident was a child protection issue at the time.
The woman said: “It really was, but I didn’t act on it unfortunately.”
Ms MacVicar then asked why she didn’t record the incident within a “day book” used to document the boy’s progress at school.
She replied: “I myself was negligent.”
