- Baby 'found alone, screaming' in Darwin childcare centre
- News.com.au
- 28/01/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 258 articles in 2009 )
A WOMAN broke the window of a Darwin childcare centre with a brick when she arrived to find the building locked, the lights out and her tiny son trapped inside.
Yula Williams, 30, said she could hear her eight-month-old baby Xavier "screaming and crying", the Northern Territory News reported.
"It made me terrified to know that my son was inside the centre, locked and in the dark," she said.
Ms Williams had dropped her son off at the centre in the Darwin suburb of Wagaman around 8am (CST) on Tuesday and went to work.
She had dropped her car off at a local mechanic and arranged for one of her cousins to collect her son from the centre before it closed at 6pm (CST).
But these arrangements fell through close to centre's closing time of 6pm, so she called the centre. "I tried to call (the centre) just before 6pm and it kept going to messagebank," she said.
"We got here (at the centre) at 10 minutes to six, everything was locked up."
After scanning all the security screens the frantic mother climbed the back of the building to call Xavier's name through elevated slats.
"I couldn't hear him from the outside but when I walked around and called through the vents to the bedrooms I heard him scream," she told ABC radio in Darwin.
Desperate to get to her tiny son, Ms Williams then picked up a brick from the garden bed and smashed it through a window.
Police arrived at the scene about 7.30pm (CST) after they were called by one of the mother's relatives, who told them a baby was missing.
St John Ambulance officers also attended the centre to ensure the child was in good health.
They gave Xavier the all-clear.
Ms Williams said that while she could understand the misunderstanding with her relative over the pickup arrangements, she could not understand how the centre had not called her to let her know that no-one had come to collect her son.
Police said they were continuing to conduct investigations into the incident. The territory's education department was also investigating.
Read more on this story at the Northern Territory News.
Yula Williams, 30, said she could hear her eight-month-old baby Xavier "screaming and crying", the Northern Territory News reported.
"It made me terrified to know that my son was inside the centre, locked and in the dark," she said.
Ms Williams had dropped her son off at the centre in the Darwin suburb of Wagaman around 8am (CST) on Tuesday and went to work.
She had dropped her car off at a local mechanic and arranged for one of her cousins to collect her son from the centre before it closed at 6pm (CST).
But these arrangements fell through close to centre's closing time of 6pm, so she called the centre. "I tried to call (the centre) just before 6pm and it kept going to messagebank," she said.
"We got here (at the centre) at 10 minutes to six, everything was locked up."
After scanning all the security screens the frantic mother climbed the back of the building to call Xavier's name through elevated slats.
"I couldn't hear him from the outside but when I walked around and called through the vents to the bedrooms I heard him scream," she told ABC radio in Darwin.
Desperate to get to her tiny son, Ms Williams then picked up a brick from the garden bed and smashed it through a window.
Police arrived at the scene about 7.30pm (CST) after they were called by one of the mother's relatives, who told them a baby was missing.
St John Ambulance officers also attended the centre to ensure the child was in good health.
They gave Xavier the all-clear.
Ms Williams said that while she could understand the misunderstanding with her relative over the pickup arrangements, she could not understand how the centre had not called her to let her know that no-one had come to collect her son.
Police said they were continuing to conduct investigations into the incident. The territory's education department was also investigating.
Read more on this story at the Northern Territory News.
Source: https://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24974269-421,00.html
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