Male nursery worker, 30, accused of raping and sexually abusing five toddlers in his care weeps as he tells jury he was ’emulating’ what was done to him as a child
A nursery worker who sexually abused five toddlers claimed he was ’emulating’ what was done to him as a child, a court heard.
Nathan Bennett, 30, of Corston, Bath, is on trial accused of preying on children at the Partou King Street nursery in Bristol.
He denies eight charges including rape, sexual assault and assault by penetration, but pleaded guilty to 13 other charges involving five children aged two or three.
Bennett was arrested after a manager at the nursery saw him on CCTV carry out an alleged sexual assault on a child at the Bristol-based nursery in February last year.
Giving evidence on Thursday morning, Bennett broke down as he said: ‘Growing up as a child I was exposed to a lot of sexual activity on myself, and sort of throughout those years I would sometimes ask the person doing it, is this sex?
‘And he would say no, and it sort of just became, I guess, normalised through that.’
While he accepted that the contact between him and the toddlers was sexual, Bennett denied having a sexual attraction to them.
‘As I stated I think already, it was emulating what I had experienced as a child – presuming it was to make them happy and feel better,’ he claimed.
Nathan Bennett, 30, of Corston, Bath, is on trial at Bristol Crown Court (pictured) accused of preying on children at a Bristol nursery
While under cross-examination, he often asked for questions to be repeated by the prosecutor, Virginia Cornwall, and his thoughts on the accusations appeared unclear.
‘You’re pretending that you don’t really understand to get some sort of sympathy from the jury, that’s what I’m suggesting,’ said Ms Cornwall.
Bennett, who had experience working in other childcare settings, was also asked why he liked working at the nursery.
‘I found it easy to talk to and be around children as well as some of the staff,’ he claimed.
He told jurors he ‘enjoyed the energy’ from staff and the children, and described it as an ‘upbeat’ and ‘friendly’ environment.
The nursery worker also told the court that he had considered resigning because he felt ‘overworked’ but decided against it.
‘My mum, who I have a chequered past with, for the first time said she was proud of me because I was working and she loved me for it,’ said Bennett.
Opening the case on Monday, prosecuting, Virginia Cornwall described the abuse as ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’.
She added that Bennett, who started working in the nursery in July 2024, had ‘admitted sexual interest in pre-school boys’ by issuing guilty pleas.
Nathan Bennett has been accused of preying on children at Partou King Street Day Nursery and Pre-school in Bristol for a year
Nursery manager Victoria Tutton told the court that the accused would ‘favour’ certain children, preferring to read them stories or sit with them.
She also told jurors that she witnessed Bennett on CCTV putting his hand down the trousers of a child, and immediately sent him home.
Bennett ‘presented as suitable’ and had experience working in other pre-school settings, the prosecutor said.
‘The evidence that you are going to be viewing via CCTV will show that he is many things, including a risk taker,’ she said.
‘He took opportunities that he either engineered or were presented to him within the nursery setting to abuse.
‘You may think, with children as young as two or three, who are understandably trusting of an adult who they have a familiarity with.
‘As you will see from the footage, he actively encourages that familiarity.
‘He’s tactile, he’s attentive, you will see that there’s hair ruffling, there’s touching, there’s closeness, the sorts of things that little children perhaps respond to – making them feel special and safe with him.
‘They were not to understand what his interest was in them, or why he was doing what he was doing.
‘A child of that age simply would not comprehend would they that it was sexual or necessarily wrong.’
Bennett denies the following charges: two charges of raping a child under 13, four charges of the sexual assault of a child under 13, two charges of assault of a child under 13 by penetration and three charges of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.
He has previously pleaded guilty to 13 other charges. They were eight charges of sexual assault of a child under 13, four charges of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and one charge of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.
The trial continues.
