Bluebell Halliwell's abusive nanny in court

One of a mother’s fears came true for Geri Halliwell last August, when she stepped out for a half hour, leaving her then three month old daughter Bluebell with her new nanny. She came home to find a screaming baby, with the nanny making no attempts to comfort her, and then found hand markings on her daughter’s leg. The matter was investigated by the police, and in October of last year, Jasmine Schidmt, the 31 year old maternity nurse/nanny, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Bluebell and two other infants, both 8 weeks old at the time.

Ms. Schidmt will appear in court to face the charges next Tuesday. The Scotland Yard said,

She is charged by the Metropolitan Police’s child abuse investigation unit with two counts of causing grievous bodily harm against a two-month-old child, one count of causing actual bodily harm against a two-month-old child and one count of causing actual bodily harm against a three-month-old child [Bluebell Halliwell].

Geri’s rep had no comment on the charges. Bluebell is now 10 months old.

Source: Sky News
Thanks to CBB reader Catherine.

Has your child been injured (not necessarily abused!) when not in your presence? How did you react?

Comments

How horrible!!! Just goes to show you this can happen to anyone..I hope that nanny gets put away!

- Jen on March 21st, 2007

This is so sad. These famous people leave their children with nannies too often without considering the fact they can be hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I know regular people use nannies to but we also know how to shop and take care of business with our children with us and it seems that famous people have a hard time handling their children while shopping and dining.

- michelle on March 21st, 2007

WOW that’s shocking! What a horrible woman. And to find out Bluebell wasn’t the only child she has abused – tut tut

Wonder what qualifications this woman had regarding caring for tiny infants.

She’s a maternity nurse, so well-trained, it appears. Seems she has an anger/temper problem, or can’t handle crying.

- Heavenly_hibiscus on March 21st, 2007

That is just awful. I don’t understand if you can’t handle children withtout abusing them or don’t enjoy it, why be a nanny? There are a million other jobs you could take. I hope she’s okay, we all know how tragic these injuries can be for babies. There seems to be a rash of child abuse cases by non-family caregivers in the Bay Area lately. I read about it and it makes me glad I’m not a mom yet so I don’t have to deal with it (for now) , but I still worry when I read about this happening to other people. I think that could be my kid oneday. Tt’s really hard to trust people with my car and my pets, so I know as a mom I’m going to be a nervous wreck when they are out of my care. How scary, I always thought with extra money you can afford the best for your kids. I guess it can happen to any of us. There are evil people everywhere unfortunately. I guess you get those secret cameras just in case maybe? Is that too being too much of a snoop?

- agtdonut on March 21st, 2007

My daughter, adopted from China at age 15 months by me, was severely abused and neglected from birth til the time I got her. Although her physical scars have healed, I am unsure as to how she will react emotionally when she is older. She is now 3 years old. She has gotten the best therapists, specialists, doctors and so forth, but none of that can erase what has happened to her.

Mostly, my girl is happy and well-adjusted. But, she is wary of strangers and takes a long time to trust people. She doesn’t take any cr*p from anyone, and rightfully so! We all joke that if someone ever kidnapped my daughter, they would drop her back off in under an hour, with cuts, bruises, broken teeth, and some missing fingers!

My daughter is one tough cookie, and we hope that her experiences will make her more sympathetic to others in the world who are suffering.

As far as my reaction, if I could have gotten my hands on the person(s) who harmed my daughter (at her orphanage) I would have, but we were not allowed access.

- Allison on March 21st, 2007

Three trips to an emergency room in under 1 calendar year. Two different sitters. I know things can happen, but after the first two trips at sitter 1 we got another, and then a freak accident ended up with a trip to an e.r. and a plastic surgeon (a cat scratched all the way through my daughter’s lip and it had to be sewn back together. After that trip I quit working. I was seven months pregnant with baby number 2 at the time, too.

- cindy on March 21st, 2007

I remember baby-sitting my neighbor’s nine-month-old son when I was thirteen, and after giving him a bottle, he started fussing. I put him down on the changing table to check his diaper, and because he was squirming, he hit his head on the dresser right next to the table. All I remember is watching his little face crumple up and his head start to shake out of frusteration and thinking, “Oh my God, I hurt the baby!” I felt like the most evil person alive. He eventually calmed down and his parents never found out, but I felt awful for a long time after.
I agree with everyone who is wondering why this woman ever pursued a career as a nanny in the first place. If you don’t like babies, don’t take care of them. They can drive people who love them up the wall, never mind people who dislike them!

- Lauren on March 21st, 2007

I never left my kids at that age. I think the first time I got out they where old enough to tell me what was going on. I could never leave my babies we took them everywhere. Of course we are not famous with a million cameras following us either. This is exactly why I could never leave them. I feel bad for the mom how sad when you can afford the very best and its still not safe.

- JoyJoy on March 21st, 2007

My mother said that when i was less than a year she had a nanny who would beat me.. she soon found out, just like Gery. I have no memory of this.

- Mary on March 21st, 2007

Three years ago, my sister-in-law received a call from her daycare provider saying my nephew wasn’t feeling well and she needed to pick him up. He had been at daycare for less four hours. When my SIL arrived, she found my nephew, who was two at the time, sitting on the floor sobbing, “My leg, my leg.”

She took him to my brother’s work and they immediately took him to the emergency room. During the examination, deep scratches were found on the back of my nephew’s neck and head. X-rays of his leg revealed he had a broken femur. The break was a spiral fracture which indicated it had been broken by using force with a twisting motion at the same time. The doctors said that this type of break on his femur had to be inflicted by an adult. My nephew was rushed two hours away by ambulance for emergency surgery to put his leg back together. He was in a double cast from the waist down for almost three months. When the cast came off, he didn’t walk for almost two weeks. His leg will always be a little shorter than the other.

The woman that did this to him was never punished! Her daycare license was taken away but she still babysits children. She was never charged with anything!

The kicker of this whole thing is, the incident took place in Dickinson county, Iowa. In this county, a two-year-old little girl, Shelby Duis, died after being repeatedly raped and beaten by her mother’s boyfriend. County prosecutors never proved the case against the boyfriend so he was acquitted of all charges despite damning evidence including Shelby’s DNA being found on his underwear and evidence he raped her with a broom handle, among other things. Shelby’s mother was sent to prison for child endangerment for allowing this to happen. I working as a reporter when the mother tried to appeal her case and had to attend court the day the appeal was presented. As evidence was submitted as to why this woman’s appeal should be denied, I had to leave the court room. I became physically ill as I listened to what this little girl had been through over a period of months and when it was revealed that Shelby had lain in her bed, dead, for over 24 hours, I became distraught. Shelby’s death created a storm and prompted lawmakers to implement new laws in Iowa concerning child abuse. This was national news for a while.

My nephew’s attack, occurring in the same county and investigated by the same officials that investigated Shelby’s death, never even made the local papers and this woman is still free to attack other children!

We will never know for sure what happened to my nephew and he has blocked it out completely. He is now a happy, healthy five-year-old, thankfully!

- reportermom on March 21st, 2007

oh that’s horrible!

I’m a caretaker myself for small children and I can’t even imagine hurting them.

Usually when I’m frustrated with the kids and they are not listening or they are whining I remove myself from the room…take a deep breath…calm myself down…then go back and deal with the situation. It really works. I can def. understand the frustration of parenting but never would I do anything to ever harm a child.

When I was younger I always freaked out when the kids were in my care and they’d fall and scrape a knee or bump there heads…I always felt horrible and afraid the parents would think I allowed it or even did it but most of the time they would just smile and say, “it happens”. It’s kind of a hard thing to take care of other peoples kids because you try to do the best work you can but sometimes the pressure of caring for one’s child is overwhelming because your trying so much harder to make sure they don’t get hurt!

- J.M. on March 21st, 2007

2 month old with the nanny? Geri Halliwell should take better care of her daughter and not leave such young baby with the stranger ( i mean non family member).

No, 3 months. The other children the woman abused were 2 months.

- Amy on March 21st, 2007

My mom babysitted kids in our home and was a stay at home mom until I was about 10 years old, my younger brother was 8 and my sister was 13 when she had went back to work. We went to a babysitters house before and after school and were abused by them. My parents did believe in spanking as a form of discipline but this babysitter took it to the extream and hit us with fists and smacked us in the face. My mom was stuck in a rough spot because we were old enough to tell her what was going on but she wasn’t in the position to do anything about it, there came an incident that I don’t really remember but that was the end, even though my parents couldn’t afford it my mom quit her job and went back to being a stay at home mom and babysitting kids in our home. But I got to say because of my experience I will never be able to leave my kids in a stranger’s care.

- Beth on March 21st, 2007

I am rather disgusted to see a few individuals suggest this is Geri’s fault or that “she should take better care of her daughter.” Is this really the proper forum to express personal opinions on the appropriate age for non-parental, non-familial care? That seems highly disrespectful – and unfairly judgemental – to me.

- Michelle on March 21st, 2007

Amy: Considering the fact that a lot of people’s maternity leave ends at 6 weeks there are lots of children who are left with a nanny or another caregiver at a very young age. That does not make them bad mothers. Mother’s have it hard enough without being judged by others for not being with their kids 24/7. And how nice for the mothers who have family members around to help them (I only mention that since you’ve stated those are the only acceptable people to leave a young baby with), but not everyone has family who can or will help and so they have to hire someone to watch their child when they have somewhere to go that isn’t appropriate for a baby to go to. And, if I’m not mistaken Geri is a single mother so she doesn’t even have another parent around to help out, so I’m sure she needs a break every now and then.

It’s amazing to me to see the level of perfection that is expected of mothers, and also to see how harshly they are judged.

- Grace on March 21st, 2007

I would wring her neck if I ever caught her! No matter the age of the child that Nanny has no right to do that. I wonder what were her reactions when Geri found her out? Thats sad. I hope the little one is doing okay. I know one thing, if anyone hurts my kids they wouldn’t make it into court!

- Callen on March 22nd, 2007

That’s terrible. How could anyone intentionally hurt a baby????? Or any child for that matter??

When my twins were 3 1/2 and in a home-based child care, I got a call that my daughter had fallen off a swing and needed to be picked up. She had fallen off a tire swing onto the still frozen ground. I took her to the ER and boy was asked a lot of questions about how it happened. They asked me and then they asked my daughter some questions as well. It turned out she had broken her collar bone. The daycare provider felt awful and I really never suspected anything sinister, but I can see why the hospital would be cautious.

I can understand the frustration that some people might feel with a crying baby (my twins were colicky and screamed night and day for about a month), but that is NEVER an excuse for physically harming a child. I don’t know why this woman would choose to work as a nanny with a temper like that.

- TwinMom on March 22nd, 2007

All parents have to leave their children
with a sitter at some point, even if it is
to spend an evening out together alone or to
run errands. In this case, Geri had only
stepped out for half an hour.
Even if the child is left with other family
members abuse can still happen.

- KarenC on March 22nd, 2007

That’s awful!! That is absolutely a mother’s worst fear. Poor Geri! I’m sure that was incredibly difficult to have to face–your own infant daughter abused by someone you trusted to care for her.

The only similar incident I’ve had with my children was with my daughter Angelia (now 4). I got married in February 2006 and the day before the wedding, I was crazily running all over town trying to finish last-minute details. I had a babysitting watching her that I had used once before. A seemingly nice woman, maybe 25 years old. I was gone about 3 hours, and when I returned, Angelia was sitting strapped into her booster seat in the kitchen. She didn’t have any food or anything, she was just trapped there, sobbing. And the babysitter was nowhere in sight. I finally found her upstairs on our computer, using the internet. I was furious and asked how long my daughter had been in the chair, and she plainly stated “She didn’t want to play with her toys, so I put her there.” It turns out, she was in that chair for about 2 hours. I later found red marks on her arms and back. I don’t know if the babysitter hit her, or if she just struggled so hard to get out of that chair that she hurt herself.

Either way, it’s a horrifying situation to be in. This was sure long!! Well hopefully other mothers can learn a lesson from this–REALLY do your research on your babysitters and observe them with your children before you leave them alone.

- Noelle on March 22nd, 2007

It didn’t really happen to my child. It happened to my niece, who is now in my care. When she was 13 months old, like most children was going through the biting phase. And she bit her mother on the cheek. Her mother then bit her on the cheek…bringing blood, then according to my brother asked her how she liked it.

She was arrested. But was awarded joint custody because according to the judge and the social workers. Biting a child is not child abuse. But if she had of hit the baby things would have been different. Supposedly. She eventually lost all interest in her child and gave up her rights.

- Mary on March 22nd, 2007

Mary, Noelle, and reportermom, all I can say is OH MY GOD. Those stories are awful. When I hear of someone hurting a child, especially a baby or toddler, it just makes me want to cry.

I was just talking to a friend of mind about this thread and she shared something similar. It happened to her boss and his wife. They left their 6 month old daughter in the care of a woman who was about 26, seemingly very nice. She was also known to the family, so they had no problems hiring her. Anyway, they started to notice after a few weeks that the baby got upset every time the sitter would come over, and a few other suspicious factors came up. (I can’t remember exactly what they were) So they hid a video camera. They found out that when their daughter was fussy and cried while the woman was watching TV, she got upset (and similar to another story here, actually), she would strap the baby into the car seat in the livingroom for hours at a time. They caught her shaking the hell out of the seat when the baby cried, slapping her, and the worst was when she held the car seat up and then slammed the bottom of it down onto the floor, I guess to startle the baby.

I can’t imagine what I would do to someone if they hurt either of my children. I would land myself in jail for sure.

- TwinMom on March 22nd, 2007

This is why I WOULD never get a nanny to take care of ny children even if I could afford one.

Poor Bluebell had to go through this!

- Laura on March 23rd, 2007

I don’t think that celebs can’t handle taking their kids shopping with them and thta’s why they leave them with nannies. I think it’s their way of protecting them from the paparazzi.

- Dawn Smith on March 24th, 2007