Lapland District Court has cleared six daycare centre workers of all charges in relation to the treatment of a then 5-year-old child in 2018.
The manager of the facility and five members of staff had faced charges including assault and false imprisonment, in a case that was reported by Yle's investigative journalism unit MOT last autumn.
The child's parents brought the case in the child's name — demanding the workers be punished for forcing the 5-year-old to lie on a bed and locking the child alone in a toilet.
The parents told the court that the incidents of assault and false imprisonment occurred on a number of different occasions.
The district court however ruled that the workers' actions were reasonable due to the child's violent behaviour, and that no evidence had been presented to prove that the child had been physically abused.
The child's parents took the case to court as a so-called 'secondary prosecution' after both the police and prosecutors decided not to pursue the investigation.
As the child was the plaintiff in the case, the court ruled the child is liable to pay the defendants' legal costs of more than 35,000 euros.
The court's verdict is not final, meaning the child could still appeal the ruling.