A woman smeared faeces on milk bottles and the walls of a nursery and climbed in clinical waste bins for “comfort”, a court heard. Abbi Taylor must have ‘horrified parents’, said a judge at Newcastle Crown Court.
The 46-year-old, from Newmarket Walk, South Shields, South Tyneside, who the court heard identifies and was referred to by all in court as a woman, has pleaded guilty to three counts of dumping bags of toxic materials – nappies containing human waste – at nurseries in the local area.
The defendant also admitted stealing clinical waste bags from one of the businesses and breaching a criminal behaviour order previously imposed by Nottinghamshire Magistrates’ Court by being within 10 metres of a nursery without a reasonable excuse.
The court was told Taylor’s Facebook profile referred to being an “adult baby diaper lover”. Jane Foley, prosecuting, said staff at a nursery in Cleadon noticed nappies had been dumped on the premises and in May 2023, a female member of staff saw Taylor exiting from one of the waste bins.
“She saw a pair of legs climb out from inside the bin and run off,” the prosecution said. The manager at a South Shields nursery reported seeing someone “rooting around inside” one of the clinical waste bins in January 2023, the court heard.
The staff member was shocked and Taylor ran away, Miss Foley said. Staff at a nursery in Jarrow initially believed a rival business might be dumping waste on their premises, the court heard, when they found up to 50 soiled nappies on site.
Excrement was smeared on milk bottles and the fire escape, Miss Foley said. In April 2023, Nottinghamshire Magistrates imposed a three-year criminal behaviour order preventing Taylor from going within 100m of nurseries after she was convicted of causing harassment, alarm or distress at a local care provider.
Taylor was interviewed after that incident and admitted to going into a bin “to sleep and find comfort”. The court was told of similar previous incidents going back to 2019.
A victim statement read on behalf of one nursery boss said the behaviour was “really unsettling” adding: “You never knew what you were going to find.” Businesses had suffered as a result of having to pay to improve security measures, the court was told.
Miss Foley said Taylor had “flagrantly disregarded the law”. Recorder Richard Herrmann said he had seen photographs of the excrement on the milk bottles and the nappies “strewn around the car parks at times when parents must have been going to drop off their babies or toddlers”.
“It must have been absolutely horrifying to leave their children in that environment and go off to work,” he said. The judge also considered the impact on nursery staff, saying: “It made them anxious, uncomfortable, unhappy going to work for months on end, not knowing what they were going to find.”
Staff at one nursery were so concerned they went in pairs when going outside to put soiled waste into the bins. Nick Lane, defending, said the case was highly unusual, adding: “Miss Taylor accepts going to childcare settings and entering the bins (…) in order to gain comfort.”
He said the defendant had experienced trauma earlier in life, adding: “It seems through age regression, Miss Taylor says she found her release, her coping mechanism.” Recorder Herrmann acknowledged Taylor’s troubled childhood, saying: “(Taylor) has a very unfortunate history.”
Mr Lane said Taylor explained that she had no sexual interest in children, and some people with a fetish for nappies were yearning for an innocent, “simpler, more care-free time”.
Mr Lane said Taylor was born male but identified as female, adding: “It is important to observe that this is not a recent development, because that is a concern that has been in the public arena for some time.
“The first recorded reference to this within the medical records goes back to 1993.” He said identifying as a woman would increase Taylor’s vulnerability if she was jailed.
Mr Lane said Taylor is in a relationship with a woman who she helps to live independently. Recorder Herrmann adjourned the sentence until Thursday and granted Taylor conditional bail.
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