Toddler 'suffers horror chemical burns at nursery', as police launch probe
Police are investigating a nursery after a toddler ‘suffered chemical burns’ there but staff failed to act.
Austin Riley, aged 15 months, was crying hysterically, thrashing around and frantically pulling at his onesie when his mum collected him from Firtrees Nursery in Motherwell on October 31.
The Scottish care watchdog, the Care Inspectorate, found that Austin’s health and wellbeing was "compromised" after staff noticed a chemical smell coming from his hair but failed to act. A police probe into the nursery is continuing after a complaint about the premises was upheld by the Care Inspectorate.
A large red mark was discovered on the 15-month-old’s stomach prompting mum Samantha to rush him to Wishaw General Hospital for treatment. But the horrified 36-year-old found herself at the centre of a social service probe before later being cleared of all wrong-doing.
The mum-of-two has now received a report from the social care watchdog which confirms a member of staff noticed an "odour resembling chlorine coming from Austin's hair." Police Scotland told the Record that enquiries into the circumstances of the tot getting injured are ongoing.
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The Care Inspectorate found that Austin Riley's health and wellbeing was "compromised" (Daily Record)Samantha said: "I want to know exactly what happened and how those chemicals came into contact with Austin’s skin. I hope the police investigation will give us those answers. When I read the Care Inspectorate report, there was a sense of relief because we finally have someone admitting that they did smell a chemical on him.
"To me, if you smell something like that in a place where there isn’t meant to be any chemicals, alarm bells should have gone off immediately. It’s a relief that we’re finally getting the answers we’ve been looking for.
"There is still annoyance that they smelt that and didn’t do anything about it though. Even a half an hour difference between them potentially starting treatment or wiping whatever it was off him would have had a huge difference on how sore his stomach would have been.
Austin Riley, aged 15 months, was found to have chemical burns after his mum picked him up from nursery (Daily Record)"But instead they tried to blame it on the onesie he was wearing. That he had worn before without any issue. He had also been wearing it for hours before he started crying.”
The mum previously told how she noticed a strong smell in the nursery room when she arrived to pick up her youngest son. But she was distracted by his "blood-curdling" screams and rushed to try to calm him down.
Austin’s skeleton onesie, bought from a well-known supermarket, was taken into evidence by police for testing. The results are not yet available. Samantha added: "It’s frustrating that we’ve had to wait this long because it happened back in October.
"But we’re still dealing with the impact it had on the whole family. We had to take Austin’s brother Cooper to the hospital on Sunday because he wasn’t very well. And my first thought was ‘oh my God, they’re going to bring it up’.
'It’s constantly in the back of your mind. It will never stop us getting the kids help when they need it but it is a very real fear.
"We don’t have any ill feelings towards social services because they had an important job to do. But for someone who has never had any experiences with them before, going through what we did when you’re trying to do the best for your son, is horrendous.
"I didn’t ever think taking him to the hospital for a potential burn was going to come back on me when he hadn’t been in my care all day. Cooper still refers to the nursery as the nursery that hurt his little brother. It’s still affecting him.
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When Austin got home his mum found a red burn mark on his tummy (Daily Record)The Care Inspectorate states that Austin’s health and wellbeing were “compromised” after a staff member noticed the smell but failed to act. She instead passed him to another worker.
The report states: "While not all staff detected an odour from Austin, we found one staff member described to us an odour resembling chlorine coming from Austin's hair.
“This accompanied by Austin being upset and him being observed to pull on his clothing should have prompted staff to investigate Austin's discomfort further."
The report added that no marks were seen on Austin during two nappy changes that day. A second member of staff told inspectors they had noticed a "slight odour" coming from Austin and saw him pulling at his clothes but also failed to investigate.
The nursery was ordered to "ensure staff are confident in their role in responding to children's needs" by investigating the circumstances of their "discomfort".
Firtrees Nursery was previously rapped by a care watchdog after a three-year-old boy ate rat poison in a play area in May 2022.
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