A FORMER nursery school owner, convicted in July last year on three counts of reckless battery on a child, has been found not guilty at appeal.

For Arabella (Bella) Butler, owner of Alton-based 'Smiley Rainbows' the Crown Court decision, on April 11, draws a line under a year of hell – in which she lost both her business and her reputation.

It was a miscarriage of justice for which Bella and her family have paid dearly, and she wants to put the record straight.

Held at Southampton Crown Court, the April appeal cleared her on all three counts and the judge apologised to Bella and her family for the agony they had suffered, referring to those who brought the accusations as "exaggerators of the truth".