Nanny cleared of throwing baby in fit of temper

 

Friday 14 August 1992 23:02 BST
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A NANNY was cleared yesterday of throwing an eight-week-old baby through the air to his mother in a fit of temper.

An Old Bailey jury of nine women and three men took less than an hour to find Sheila Beeson, 29, not guilty of child cruelty.

Ms Beeson, a state-enrolled nurse who has been involved in child care for l3 years, left the courtroom in tears and without comment.

The question occupying the jury during the three-day trial was whether child A was thrown at his mother, a City solicitor, or thrust into her arms.

The prosecution alleged that Ms Beeson threw him at his mother at the family's luxury home in Chelsea Square, south-west London, with the words: 'keep your damn baby'.

Child A's mother said her son 'flew through the air' and added: 'Fortunately I caught him'. But Ms Beeson, who was paid £250 a week, told the jury her employers were 'awful people' to please and she was reprimanded for not being able to stop the baby crying.

She said she decided to leave her job and handed over the child 'roughly' to his mother before packing and leaving. 'He never left my arms,' she added.

The last straw had been when the baby's father, a chartered accountant, verbally abused her that morning.

Her counsel, Cheryl Drew, said the parents were 'thoroughly vindictive', seeking to crush a woman whose life had been dedicated to the care of others.

Ms Drew produced a host of references, including one from the editor of She magazine and an Atlanta businesswomen, praising Ms Beeson's care of their babies.

The parents, who also employed a nanny to look after the couple's other two children, a cleaner and a chauffeur for the family Rolls Royce, were not in court for the verdict.

Judge Neil Denison told the jury in his summing-up: 'You may think this is a case where there is a clash of personalities and it may be to some extent both parties were responsible for that.

'This is not in any sense at all a case of child abuse. The prosecution is based on what is said to be a single act of ill-treatment, namely throwing that child at his mother in the way witnesses have described.' The judge said not only was Ms Beeson of good character in that she had no convictions but also in the way she was spoken of by character witnesses.

As Ms Beeson, of Thornhill, Southampton, left court, her solicitor, Samantha Harding, said: 'My client is delighted that justice has been done but has no other comment to make.'

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