Nursery worker jailed for killing toddler while trying to make him go to sleep

A nursery worker has been jailed after restraining and suffocating a toddler to get him to sleep.

Noah Sibanda was 14-months-old when he was left unchecked by staff for more than two hours at the now-closed Fairytales Day Nursery in Dudley, West Midlands.

Kimberly Cookson had wrapped him in a sleeping bag and restrained him face down in a bid to force him to go to sleep in December 2022.

CCTV showed her placing a blanket over his head and putting her left leg on him to stop him moving.

The 23-year-old, who was 20 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and is being sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Noah was declared dead in hospital around an hour after being found unresponsive.

Noah’s mum Masi said staff at the nursery ‘were playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives’.

She said: ‘I handed Noah over to the people who killed him.

‘Because of this I cannot forgive myself and consequently will never forgive the defendants.’

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