A self-described ‘adult baby diaper lover’ who dumped soiled nappies outside nurseries and climbed into their bins has been spared jail after being beaten up while on remand.
Abbi Taylor, who was also listed under a male name in court, also smeared excrement on milk bottles and the fire escape of one nursery during a ‘bizarre’ series of incidents.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Taylor, 46, 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 admitted three counts of dumping bags of toxic materials – nappies containing human waste – at nurseries in her local area of South Shields, South Tyneside.
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She 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 100m of a nursery without a reasonable excuse.
Taylor told police after three incidents in 2023 that she climbed into a nursery’s bin ‘to sleep and find comfort’. There had been similar previous incidents dating back to 2019.
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.
Staff at another nursery in Jarrow initially believed a rival business might be dumping waste on their premises, when they found up to 50 soiled nappies on site and excrement was smeared on milk bottles and the fire escape.
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.
The court heard the nursery businesses had suffered because they had to pay to increase security measures.
One nursery boss said in a victim statement that the behaviour was ‘really unsettling’, adding ‘you never knew what you were going to find’, and one of the nurseries started sending staff in pairs to put soiled waste into the bins.
Nick Lane, defending, said Taylor ‘has had a particularly difficult time in custody’ and ‘been subject to a number of physical assaults’.
He told the court: ‘He has taken up three opportunities for employment in custody.
‘First in horticulture where he had stones repeatedly thrown at him by prisoners.
‘He was transferred to the library where he lasted half a day before being assaulted.’
Mr Lane said Taylor was transferred back to the reception wing because the prison authorities said ‘that was the only place he could be kept safe’, but is ‘not leaving his cell out of fear’.
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.
Recorder Richard Herrmann acknowledged Taylor’s troubled childhood, saying: ‘(Taylor) has a very unfortunate history.’
Taylor says 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’, the court heard.
Mr Lane said Taylor was born male but identifies 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.’
Recorder 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.’
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.’
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