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🇩🇰 Denmark /Crime & Justice

Childminder convicted of illegally restraining two-year-old

From Berlingske · () Danish

Translated from Danish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Outcome reported
  • A court in Aarhus sentenced a 54-year-old childminder to 30 days in prison, suspended, for unlawful coercion and abuse of public office.
  • She used a modified sleep harness to keep a two-year-old from sitting up in a stroller, despite having been warned about the equipment in 2019.
  • The prosecution sought to bar her from caring for children under six, but the court did not impose that penalty; she had already been dismissed and no longer works as a childminder.

A Danish childminder received a suspended prison sentence after altering a stroller sleep harness so a two-year-old boy could not sit up.

The Aarhus court sentenced the 54-year-old woman to 30 days in prison, suspended, for unlawful coercion and abuse of her public position. The case concerned an incident in April 2024, when she took the boy to a playgroup.

Another childminder discovered that something was wrong with the harness. Special prosecutor Jesper Rubow said the woman had sewn extra fasteners onto it. The harness normally secured the child around the hips, but the added fasteners held the child around the upper body, up to the shoulders. That prevented him from sitting up in the stroller, as children should be able to do.

She had sewn extra fasteners onto it.

— Jesper RubowThe special prosecutor described how the childminder altered the sleep harness.

The court also heard that the woman had been warned in 2019 not to use the modified harness. Rubow said her explanation was that the child could sit up and free himself, which led her to use the altered harness again. The prosecution wanted her barred from working with children under six, but the court rejected that request. She was dismissed immediately after the incident and no longer works as a childminder.

According to the prosecutor, the woman does not plan to appeal. The prosecution has two weeks to decide whether to appeal the district court ruling.

Her own explanation is that the child in question could sit up and get loose, and that is why she used it again.

— Jesper RubowThe prosecutor summarized the defendant's explanation for reusing the modified harness.
About this summary

Originally published by Berlingske in Danish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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