A teacher who "singled out and bullied" her young student over the course of five months will not serve prison time for her actions, despite being charged with child cruelty.

 

Rachael Regan, who taught in a West Yorkshire school, became the subject of an investigation in January 2013 after the mistreatment of one of her students came to light.

 

The catalogue of cruel incidents carried out by Ms. Regan included tying the seven-year-old's shoes on with string, locking her in a storeroom, Sellotaping her  to a chair to stop her walking around the classroom, and taking a photo of her off the classroom wall and ripping it into pieces.

 

Ms. Regan told the court that some of the incidents had been well-intentioned and a "bit of fun".

 

The young girl's mother described the "heartbreaking" moment when she heard what her daughter had been subjected to. "[My child] said one of the teachers had Sellotaped her to the chair and that all her class friends were laughing at her... I have never seen my daughter so upset. She just clung to me for dear life."

 

Despite the jury's quick decision to charge Ms. Regan with child cruelty, she will not serve jail time due to the delay between when the incidents occurred and the date of trial. The bullying began in September 2012 and went on until January 2013, but the case did not reach the courts until last month.

 

The judge acknowledged that Ms. Regan had spent over a year on bail while waiting for her case to go to trail, and that the young girl in question, now aged nine, had waited "a quarter of her lifetime" to give evidence in court.
 

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