Fairytales Day Nursery - Mum's victim statement read to court

Masi Sibanda, whose toddler died at a Dudley nursery has told a court her “healthy, happy child suffocated in silence.”

Noah Sibanda died at Fairytales Day Nursery after he was restrained by a staff member who was attempting to make him sleep.

Nursery practitioner Kimberley Cookson, 23, and director Deborah Latewood, 55, are due to be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court today (Thursday, April 16).

CCTV footage of the incident was played during proceedings on this morning.

Prosecutor John Elvidge KC said Noah had been tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag, with a blanket placed over his head, before being laid face down by Cookson.

She is said to have held him face down on a cushion and restrained him with her leg for part of the time, in what was described as an attempt to “make him sleep when he did not want to.”

Noah was later found unresponsive. Emergency services were called, but he was pronounced dead in hospital.

The prosecutor told the court the sleeping environment was “exceptionally dangerous,” adding that Noah would have been overheated and exhausted, and that “any young child placed to sleep in these circumstances would be likely to die.”

The prosecutor added that both staff and management failed to follow basic sleep safety guidance, with their actions falling “very far below accepted standard of care.”

A victim statement from Noah’s mother, Masi Sibanda, was read to the court.

She described her son as “healthy, strong and beautiful to behold” when he was born, adding that he was “a patient and gracious little” boy.

Masi Sibanda said she would “forever feel guilty” for trusting the nursery.

“I handed Noah over to people who killed him,” she said.

“We have all been robbed of what Noah could have been.

“I cannot forgive myself and I cannot forgive the defendants.

“They played Russian roulette with our children’s life.

"My healthy and happy child suffocated in silence.”

The hearing has been adjourned until 2pm.