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

Nursery worker Kimberly Cookson has been jailed for three years and four months 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.

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.’

Noah’s father Thulani said: ‘My son died at just 14-months-old because of the gross negligence of someone who was trusted to care for him.

‘When a child is taken from this world the loss is immeasurable. Noah’s absence is felt in every corner of our lives.

‘Noah deserved to live. He deserved to be protected and we deserved to watch him grow up.’

Nursery owner Deborah Latewood, aged 55, is also facing sentence.

Latewood, of Dudley, has admitted a Health and Safety at Work Act offence on the basis that she did not know children were being put down to sleep in a dangerous way, but should have known.

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