A 76-year-old man has been charged after eight children fell ill at a Christian summer camp.
The children had been taking part in a summer camp at Stathern Lodge, a property in the the East Midlands owned by Christian holiday club operator, the Braithwaite Gospel Trust.
John Ruben, of Ruddington, Nottingham, was originally detained on suspicion of administering poison or a noxious thing with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy.
He has now been charged with three counts of wilful ill-treatment of a child, Nottinghamshire Police announced on Friday. The charges relate to three different children.
Ruben is a former vet and primary school teacher. He has been remanded into custody and will appear at Leicester magistrates’ court on Saturday.
"The owners and operators of Stathern Lodge are independent from those people who use or hire the lodge and are not connected to the incident," Nottinghamshire Police said.
Assistant Chief Constable Leona Scurr, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We understand that legal proceedings are now active in relation to this incident so therefore it would not be appropriate for us to comment further.
“However, we understand that this incident would have caused serious concerns for many people in our local community.
“We would like to reassure them that we are working with partners including Leicestershire Police with their investigation.
“Anyone with wishes to provide the investigations team with further information can do so through our dedicated online portal.”
The children were taken to hospital on Monday to be checked over and have since been released.
Their condition had been reported to Leicestershire Police on Sunday but officers did not attend the scene until Monday. The force's handling of the incident is being investigated by the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A spokesperson for the IOPC said, "The investigation will look at whether there were any breaches of professional behaviour - namely a failure to carry out duties and responsibilities - that resulted in a delay in Leicestershire Police's response to what was later declared a critical incident."
The investigation into the summer camp incident has now been handed over to the East Midlands Special Operations Unit's major incident team.
The incident, which has attracted a lot of media interest, has shaken residents of the nearby village of Plungar, where a triage tent was set up in the village hall to treat the children.
One local told The Telegraph it had been "pretty chaotic, with emergency workers running around everywhere". They described seeing "a few children in tears as they walked into the hall".
"It’s like every parent’s worst nightmare, dropping your child at summer camp and then being told they might have been poisoned," they told the newspaper.
