THE "dominating" head of a private nursery school in Alton dangled a toddler over an open wheelie bin as punishment for being naughty, a jury heard on Monday.
Winchester Crown Court was told that Gaynor Campbell-Brown (54) used to warn children they would be put in the bin if they misbehaved.
It was alleged Campbell-Brown (pictured) took hold of the little boy and held him over the four-foot deep bin for two minutes.
She also threatened a young girl with the same punishment leaving her "very upset", it was said.
Gemma Cook (22) who worked at Alton Little School, which was owned by Campbell-Brown, told the court she had seen the incident involving the boy.
She said: "I do not know what he had done but she said 'Right, that is it, I'm taking you to the bin'. She picked him up under her arm and carried him to the back door.
"She opened the door and lifted up the lid and went to put him in. He was hysterical, he was screaming, really, really upset."
Campbell-Brown was arrested by police in January this year when complaints were made about her style of discipline.
The red-haired teacher was later charged with wilfully ill-treating the boy and girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Prosecutor, Richard Onslow, said Campbell-Brown had been in charge of about 30 babies and young children up to the age of five at the Cross and Pillory Lane based school.
He said everyone could understand that some form of discipline was needed when running a nursery school.
But, the defendant," a loud and dominating and perhaps, to other members of her staff, intimidating character, went well beyond what are well accepted methods of encouraging children to behave properly.
"She went so far beyond the normal standards of treatment that we would all expect and understand as to cause unnecessary suffering.
"She did this by threatening them and in the boy's case actually hanging him over the empty wheelie bin outside the school."
Shortly after the incident the boy, who was aged between two and three at the time, was taken away from the school.
Mr Onslow told the court: "The prosecution say that patently the point as far as the defendant was concerned was to make the child behave.
"Doubtless, being a loud and dominating character, that seemed to be an effective way of doing it at the time. "
The boy's mother told the court her son had become "more and more" aggressive and frustrated the longer he stayed at the school.
She said: "When he left the school his trust in adults was absolutely zero. He trusted me and he trusted his father, and became very, very clingy.
"He isnt noramlly aggressive or frustrated child at all, it was just odd."
Of the incident with the little girl, who was aged between six months and two years when she went to the school, Mr Onslow said: "She was threatened, according to a witness, with the wheelie bin on several occasions.
"Sometimes this was in a joking manner. On other occasions the defendant appeared to be angry and the girl would become very upset.
"You may think it is not why parents send their children to a school like this, not to be hung over wheelie bins, not to be threatened with the ultimate penalty."
Campbell-Brown, who also assesses NVQ courses on child care, told the court that the policy at Alton Little School was to talk with the child if there was a problem.
She added: "If it continued then it would be a matter of saying 'You had better go and think about it'.
"We used a chair and the point of that would be so that the child could see what they were missing."
Campbell-Brown, who described herself as a "post graduate early years specialist", had admitted taking the boy out to the wheelie bin.
She said she had told the boy that it was "nasty, dark and horrible" inside and that no one would be put in the bin.
She further denied threatening to put the girl into the bin adding: "I have said that rubbish goes in the bin."
Campbell-Brown of Otterfield Road, Yiewsley near West Drayton, Middlesex, denies charges of cruelty to two children between 1997 and this year.
The principal, who said she had ten years experience in child care told the court she had started the nursery school in 1994 but that it was now closed.
The trial at Winchester Crown Court continues.