Child assault charge against nursery owner dropped
Lesley Bothwell was cleared of the allegations on the first day of her trial.
A children’s nursery owner who was accused of assaulting a child has been cleared of the charge.
Lesley Bothwell, 55, was charged with seizing a four-year-old boy, dragging him from under a table and forcing him on to a chair at the Barnton Nursery in Edinburgh.
Bothwell, of Letham, Fife, pled not guilty to the offence, which was alleged to have happened on July 2 last year.
After hearing from two witnesses at a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday, fiscal depute Iain Batho said he was leading no further evidence.
Ms Bothwell's defence agent Shelagh McCall QC asked for a not guilty verdict, which Sheriff Gordon Liddle confirmed.
The court heard the four-year-old boy crawled under a table, refusing to come out.
Ms Bothwell grabbed his leg, pulled him out and tried to get him to sit on a seat.
Nursery trainee Rebecca Stewart, 22, said Ms Bothwell had put her arms round him in a bear hug as he began kicking out with his legs.
Ms Stewart agreed the boy had been having a “pretty serious temper tantrum" and his parents had been in touch about their son’s "social problems".
The court also heard the boy had been pulling at a tablecloth which had a wormery placed on top of it, causing concern for the safety of the child and his classmates.