Every parent's nightmare: Childminder convicted of cruelty to girl, 3, after she suffers a dislocated shoulder

Emily Berry spent four days in hospital and is still having counselling for nightmares.

She had been attending Mother's Pride, an Ofsted-inspected nursery, for just six weeks when her mother Zoe found a "hand-shaped" bruise on her face.

An examination in hospital revealed scores more bruises on her body as well as the injured shoulder.

Police were alerted – and it took them an hour to photograph all of Emily's injuries.

Scroll down for more...

Yesterday, registered childminder Kavita Kohli, 29, pleaded guilty at Newcastle upon Tyne Crown Court to child cruelty for failing to get the girl medical help.

She had been charged with assault, but the Crown Prosecution Service said it would be impossible to prove who had caused the injuries.

Her husband Ricky – who worked as her assistant – was also accused of child cruelty, but the charge was dropped as a result of her plea.

Last night Mrs Berry, of Darras Hall, Northumberland, and her exhusband Richard Berry spoke of their outrage at Emily's treatment.

Mrs Berry said: "I am absolutely horrified. I trusted this woman to look after my child. Instead, she ended up in hospital for four days."

The 35-year-old recruitment executive had decided to return to work after spending three years at home looking after Emily and the couple's five-year-old son, Jack.

She chose Mother's Pride, at the home of Kohli's parents on the exclusive Darras Hall estate in Ponteland, Northumberland, because it had received high praise from Ofsted inspectors in 2006.

She and her ex-husband, a university lecturer, enrolled both children at the nursery from February, for £300 a week. But on March 28, when she picked her daughter up, Mrs Berry noticed that all was not well.

Scroll down for more...

"Emily was very quiet in the car as we drove home, but I thought she was just tired," she said.

"When we got home and I tried to take her coat off, she began to scream.

"When I turned the light on in the hall, I could see a hand-shaped bruise across her face and her arm was just hanging off."

She added: "We were so careful. She (Kohli) was Ofsted-registered and it was in a really nice area – you just can't believe it."

Mr Berry, 35, said: "We trusted this woman. We thought we were doing the right thing and this is what happened."

Kohli, of Benwell, Newcastle, wiped away tears as she pleaded guilty to the cruelty charge.

At the time of the Ofsted inspection on May 3 last year she was minding four children.

Kohli has since been disqualified as a childminder and steps are being taken to cancel her registration.

After the case, she said: "I have no comment to make at the moment."

She will be sentenced on January 14.