Defendant who dumped soiled adult nappies outside nurseries avoids immediate jail term

A defendant who dumped soiled adult nappies and climbed into bins outside children’s nurseries has avoided an immediate jail term after being repeatedly assaulted while on remand.

Abbi Taylor smeared excrement on milk bottles and the fire escape of one nursery during a “bizarre” series of incidents.

A court has heard the 46-year-old identifies as a woman, but is being held at a men’s prison and was referred to with both male and female pronouns during a sentencing hearing on Friday.

Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison, which was suspended for two years after the judge heard about her “particularly difficult time” in custody.

The defendant, from South Shields, pleaded guilty to three counts of dumping bags of toxic materials – nappies containing human waste – at nurseries in South Tyneside.

Taylor 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.

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After a previous sentencing hearing in April was adjourned, Newcastle Crown Court heard Taylor had been remanded in custody for almost three months after pleading guilty to three further breaches of a criminal behaviour order.

Jane Foley, prosecuting, said staff at a nursery in Cleadon noticed nappies “much larger than the ones they used” were being dumped on the premises “on a fortnightly basis” and in May 2023, a female member of staff saw Taylor climbing out of one of the bins and running off.

The manager at a South Shields nursery which suffered similar incidents reported seeing someone “rooting around inside” one of the clinical waste bins in January 2023, the court heard.

Another nursery in Jarrow had up to 50 nappies strewn around the car park and excrement smeared on children’s milk bottles and the fire escape, with staff eventually refusing to open up in the morning, Ms 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 nursery after being seen climbing out of a nappy bin wearing a large adult nappy over her trousers.

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 2014.

Ms Foley said in June this year Taylor admitted three breaches of a criminal behaviour order with bin-related incidents.

In one incident, on September 25 last year, an outraged resident at a block of flats filmed Taylor standing inside one of the communal bins, hurriedly pulling up her trousers as she climbed out of the bin and ran off after being confronted.

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The court was told Taylor’s Facebook profile referred to being an “adult baby diaper lover”.

Nick Lane, defending, said Taylor “has had a particularly difficult time in custody” and “been subject to a number of physical assaults”.

The court heard a mental health report had concluded Taylor does not suffer from any diagnosable acute mental health condition.

The defendant had “awful personal circumstances and upbringing,” it was said.

The judge, Recorder Richard Herrmann, said: “This is a highly unusual and highly troubling set of offences, made all the more troubling by your failure to properly and fully explain the motivation behind your bizarre offending.”

He said he would suspend the two-year prison sentence for two years after hearing about Taylor’s time in custody, saying: “I know that you know what to expect if you breach this order in any way.”

Taylor, who will have a GPS monitoring tag, was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and 40 days of rehabilitation activity.

A spokesperson for South Tyneside Council said: “This was an unusual, complex and disturbing case which has been brought before the courts thanks to the hard work and persistence of our environmental enforcement and legal teams.

“We would like to commend the courage of nursery staff in safeguarding the children in their care, as well as for the assistance provided to our investigation.

“The offending has caused serious stress, disturbance and inconvenience to parents, staff, children and the public and we are satisfied that our investigation has resulted in the person responsible being convicted of appropriate criminality.”