A Nigerian teacher based in the United Kingdom, Elizabeth Adeagbo, is to be sentenced on May 14 following her conviction for assaulting a toddler at a nursery in the country.
It was gathered from a report by the Daily Mail that the incident occurred on April 16, 2025, at the nursery where Adeagbo worked as an agency staff.
The 29-year-old was arraigned before Sefton Magistrates’ Court, where it emerged during trial that the child had grabbed her trouser leg while seeking her attention.
Adeagbo, employed by the Teaching Personnel agency, was washing breakfast dishes at the time.
She told the court she picked the child up by his arm to avoid soaking him with her wet apron.
CCTV footage shown in court captured the young boy crying as he was carried across the room by his left arm. Hours later, when his mother came to pick him up at lunchtime, he was still in tears.
The prosecutor, Edward Handley, told the court that Adeagbo lifted the boy like a bag of rubbish as she carried him across the room, adding that she knew it was an inappropriate way to handle a child.
Her defence counsel, Caleb Suggitt, however, argued that Adeagbo had worked at two prior nurseries before the incident and had also worked with children in Nigeria, with no previous complaints against her.
Suggitt noted that Adeagbo, who had a 17-month-old son at the time of the incident, showed obvious remorse and never intended to harm the child.
The toddler’s mother told the court she received a phone call from the nursery hours after the incident.
She said she rushed to see her son and subsequently took him to the Accident and Emergency unit, adding that thankfully, he suffered no physical harm.
Following her conviction, Adeagbo is to be sentenced at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on May 14.
