The owner of a Dublin crech has been fined €1,200 for breaches of regulations after a three-year-old boy was left behind during an outing to a public park.
Anne Davy, of Giggles Creche and Montessori School on Tolka Road, was given two €600 fines on two charges of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the child.
In Dublin District Court today Judge William Hamill said Ms Davy's evidence was not credible.
During the case, the boy's mother told of her shock when she arrived to pick up her three-year-old child from a creche to find he had been left behind.
Denise McGrane raced with one of the creche staff to find her son, Nathan, still playing on a swing, oblivious to the panic around him.
"All I could think was 'was he dead?' He was in a park along a main road . . . am I ever going to see him again? I ran for my life that day," Ms McGrane said recalling July 30th last when she went to pick up Nathan.
Ms Davy denied breaching regulations governing the operation of pre-schools by leaving the child unattended in the playground of Fairview Park. She also denied not having adequate adult supervision during the outing in accordance with her insurance policy, and failing to keep adequate staff rosters, child attendance and accident report records. She claimed a member of staff was with Nathan at all times.