Facebook photo of boy with Down’s Syndrome trapped in washing machine

[Jazzy]

A mother has been questioned by police after a photo of a boy with Down’s Syndrome trapped inside a washing machine emerged online.

Courtney Stewart, 21, posted the picture of the two-year-old boy on her Facebook page on Thursday after trapping him in the machine ‘for a laugh’.

Ms Stewart, who has refused to apologize despite the little boy being in her care at the time, can be seen holding the door closed in the picture.

She told The Daily Record: ‘He loves the washing machine. We took a picture and it was a laugh.’

But her neighbors were not so amused. One person said: ‘It was terrible to look at. For anyone, let alone someone who is also a parent, to take a picture like that and stick it on Facebook for a laugh is unbelievable.

‘It’s no wonder people are angry about it. People in the town have been talking about it, because anyone who has seen it has been left shocked.’

Police questioned Ms Stewart, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, about the incident, and she told them he had climbed into the machine on his own.

She said: ‘He is clearly laughing in the pictures. So I don’t understand why somebody took that picture as – well, I don’t know what they took it as.

‘What did they think I was doing to him? Take him for a spin? He’s got a bit of a washing obsession. Anyone who knows him would know he’s got a washing obsession.

‘I don’t know who reported it. I don’t really know why they would do that. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. They shouldn’t be able to call the police anonymously.

‘The police know who it was and I don’t think it’s at all fair that they can’t tell me.’

Ms Stewart said she had been attacked on her doorstep over the picture.

Source

What are your thoughts about what she did?

 

[Smiley]

The picture of a boy is too blurry to tell his facial expression, but if he climbed into the machine on his own, wasn't in any danger, and was laughing all the time, I don't see the problem.

So she held the door closed for a moment while she took the picture. Big deal. The machine wasn't on. It's not like the door were sealed shut and the machine was filling up with water, or anything like that. Washing machines have a safeguard in place that prevents them from beginning the washing cycle unless the doors are properly closed, and these apparently weren't.

This is nothing more than another case of people making a mountain out of a molehill, methinks.

 

[DrLeftover]

She'll be up on charges, and the posting of the photo is admissible as evidence against her.

 

[Nebulous]

Sounds like a mom & her son were just goofing around to me.

 

[MrDawn]

If they were joking around. People aren't taking it that way.