A DINNER lady banged a child's head against a wall and then admitted to her supervisor she had hit another pupil, a court was told yesterday.

The dinner lady, who is 56 and from Hartlepool, denies two charges of common assault against an eight-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, alleged to have taken place at a Teesside primary school in May last year.

In court yesterday, the woman's supervisor said she had been "gob-smacked" after seeing the dinner lady drag the boy across the playground and into a covered walkway.

She told the court she heard a thud as the boy was pushed against the wall.

She said: "The way she was dragging the boy across the playground is not the way to escort a child. Then, when I heard the bang, I was gob-smacked. I remember thinking 'she's lost it'."

The supervisor said the dinner lady, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then admitted to pulling the hair of the girl during the same lunch period after the girl provoked her.

She said: "She told me 'I might as well let you know now that I've hit another girl'. I told her I'd have to report what was going on. She asked me if that meant she was going to be sacked and I said I didn't know."

Giving evidence at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court, the dinner lady denied she had hit either of the children.

Anne Mitchell, prosecuting, told the court the woman had pulled the girl's hair after losing her temper.

But the dinner lady said: "I never touched her. When she found out she was going to get into trouble I heard her friend tell her to say I had pulled her hair."

The case continues.