Aberdare: Park Lane School teachers cleared of assault charges

Defendants Mandy Hodges (in the black coat) and Laura Murphy arriving at Swansea Crown Court

Staff at a special needs school accused of assaulting severely autistic pupils have been found not guilty.

Mandy Hodges, 50, and Laura Murphy, 33, denied seven counts of assault by beating and cruelty to a child under 16 against boys aged eight, nine and 10.

The court previously heard how children were left "in pain" and had ear defenders "ripped" from them at Park Lane School in Aberdare.

However, the pair told the court they had not been given proper training.

A jury at Swansea Crown Court cleared the pair of all charges.

• Special school staff 'pulled child across a yard'

• Assault-accused school staff not trained - court

Teacher Ms Murphy and teaching assistant Ms Hodges were accused of physically and verbally assaulting the boys on more than one occasion.

Prosecutors told the court how one child was "pulled across the yard".

The teacher and teaching assistant at Park Lane special school in Aberdare have been found not guilty of all charges

Ms Murphy, who had been working at the school for eight years at the time of the alleged offences, said she had been asked to take on the class of six severely autistic children just seven weeks earlier.

"There was no support, they were struggling to get a teacher, the children were quite challenging," she said, telling detectives it was "months and months before I had any training".

She said she did not know why she had removed the ear defenders of a child with sensory processing disorder, an incident which was captured on CCTV in October 2020.

But she would often take them off children when they became anxious or violent to "take their mind off" whatever was upsetting them.

"No stress or harm was caused," she said.

Ms Hodges told officers she had worked at the school for five-and-a-half years but had "no proper autism training".

She said she had always worked with older children before coming to Ms Murphy's class in September 2020.

Judge Geraint Walters told families of the autistic children they had "not let their children down".

Acting head teacher Diane Llewellyn, senior staff and the parents left the court as the judge addressed the jury.

Friends of Ms Hodges said the case should not have come to court.

The friends, who did not want to give their names said: "This has been two years of hell for Mandy. She is a beautiful person."