A MOTHER became convinced her daughter had been abused after she discovered that one of her carers had been suspended from his job at her nursery.

The mother told the High Court she then linked her daughter's problems to the suspension of Christopher Lillie.

"I put it all together, because I had that inside information that sexual abuse was involved, "she said.

"All my daughter's recent problems seemed to fall into place."

The witness was giving evidence at the libel action brought by Mr Lillie and Dawn Reed, his former co-worker at Newcastle's Shieldfield nursery.

Mr Lillie, 37, and Ms Reed, 31, are suing Newcastle City Council and the four-member team it commissioned to investigate complaints about Shieldfield.

The team's 1998 report concluded that the pair had sexually, physically and emotionally abused children from the nursery.

Four years earlier, they were acquitted of indecently assaulting children from Shieldfield.

The mother told the hearing that when her daughter was moved into the nursery's red room, where Mr Lillie and Ms Reed worked, her toilet training regressed. At the time she attributed this to her excitement at joining the older children.

Her daughter also became very nervous and clingy and started suffering from disturbed sleep.

"She started having nightmares in which she seemed to be frightened of something," she said. "She would speak aloud in her sleep, saying things such as 'keep away' or 'don't do that'.

"She would curl herself into a ball, protecting her face and saying 'no, don't do that'."

Under cross-examination from Adrienne Page, QC, for Mr Lillie and Ms Reed, the mother said her daughter's behaviour "was making more sense" after Mr Lillie's suspension.

"Your daughter never identified any specific hurt or harm done by Christopher Lillie or Dawn Reed?" Miss Page suggested. The mother replied: "No."

The hearing continues.