A NURSERY worker fed a baby until it was sick because she found it funny, a court has heard.

Laura Pettitt, 27, who worked at a Shortlands nursery is charged with 10 counts of cruelty to a child under 16, relating to offences said to been committed from 2006 to 2008.

She denies the allegations.

Croydon Crown Court heard on March 22 how the 27-year-old, who claims to have become the victim of a smear campaign after colleagues discovered she was a lesbian, systematically abused her position in the nursery.

Prosecutor Tana Adkin said: "This case begins on November 27, 2008. Police received a referral call from social services after a report was made to the NSPCC."

Fellow nursery worker Nicola Fiddler made the call after she said complaints were not being followed up at the nursery, the court was told.

Miss Adkin said Miss Fiddler was “what you might call a whistleblower”.

The case against Pettitt, of Thayers Farm Road, Beckenham, involves the alleged abuse of 10 children in her care, aged as young as three months old.

She was employed in the baby room of a nursery she had worked at for seven years or more and was directly responsible for their wellbeing, the court heard.

It is alleged she referred to one Asian baby as Joe Daki, slang for Paki, fed one baby four times the amount he should have been until he was sick all over her and threw one youngster against a sofa which he fell off, grazing his nose.

Miss Adkin said referring to the child as Joe Daki showed the "contempt she had for the children."

She said: “Laura Pettitt was seen to shake the girl, who was a very small baby, born premature.

“She would pick her up roughly, would shake her and on many occasions would allow her to fall back on to a hard surface because of the weight of her head.”

The trial continues.