Former childcare worker Rupinder Kaur on trial accused of assaulting four children at Perth child care centre

A former childcare worker slapped a two-and-half-year-old child across the face because she wouldn’t listen to her and forcibly dragged three others by their arms causing them to cry because they wouldn’t move, a WA court has been told. Rupinder Kaur is on trial in Perth Magistrates Court accused of assaulting the four children while she was as an educational leader at a popular city centre facility between November 2019 and August 2020. She denies the charges. The 41-year-old had also been charged with a fifth offence – endangering the life, health or safety of a person – in relation to a 10-month-old baby. Ms Kaur was accused of feeding the youngster in an aggressive and unsafe manner — causing it to temporarily lose consciousness. However, police prosecutors revealed after reviewing the evidence there was no reasonable prospects of conviction and dropped the charge. During the hearing, the court was told Ms Kaur had been stood down from her job in August 2020 over an incident at the centre involving two children. It was claimed Ms Kaur had dragged two three-year-old boys by their arms out from under a table inside the centre causing both of them to “cry and scream” and one of them to hit his head. The incident was reported to police which sparked an investigation and led to the woman being charged with the other historical offences. During the hearing on Wednesday, two witnesses testified seeing Ms Kaur drag one of those children in an incident sometime between November and December 2019. Former childcare assistant trainee Emmalea Gulland testified she saw Ms Kaur drag an 18-month-old boy by his arm from the nappy change room into the main area after she had an argument with their boss. Ms Gulland said the child loved Ms Kaur, that she was his “favourite” and always wanted to be near her and had followed her into the nappy change room where she was changing a baby. However when their boss saw the toddler was in the room with Ms Kaur, an argument broke out because he was not allowed in there. Ms Gulland said after the argument she could see Ms Kaur was angry. “I saw her gritting her teeth then pick up the boy by the upper arm and dragged him into the room,” she said. Mr Gulland said the incident caused the toddler to cry however she also said he was prone to crying “all day except when sleeping”. When asked if she had witnessed anything like that before, the 28-year-old replied she had not adding: “It really made me scared and worried.” Pema Yangden, who was an education assistant at the centre in November and December 2019, also testified she witnessed the same incident. She said she saw their manager and Ms Kaur involved in an argument in the nappy change room minutes before she grabbed the child by his arm and dragged him into another room. “She (Rupinder) got really angry,” she said. “She was swearing then dragged the child by forearm into the room. “She put him there and said it was ‘because of you’ and again used foul language.” The trial continues.