The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a former care home worker accused of abusing two seniors at the Sylvia Richardson Care Facility.

Wendy Hayward was found guilty in Magistrates’ Court in March 2023 of two counts of abuse of a senior after a trial.

She launched an appeal, arguing that the magistrate, Craig Attridge, failed to properly consider evidence in the case.

In a decision handed down on May 5, Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe said it was clear from the judge’s “voluminous” notes and detailed summary that he had taken into account all the evidence before him when considering Hayward’s guilt.

Mr Justice Wolffe added: “It is obvious to me that in coming to his final decision of guilt that the magistrate properly and fully considered, interpreted, assessed and applied the legal principles relevant to offences of this nature, and other crucial pieces of evidence from both the prosecution and the defence.”

During the trial, the court heard evidence from Simone Trott, who said that on March 25, 2021, she saw the defendant jokingly call a female resident suffering from “advanced Alzheimer’s dementia” a thief, which agitated the senior.

The resident, who was in a wheelchair, threw a vase at Hayward, which did not hit her but caused water to splash on to her.

Ms Trott said that Hayward then slapped the senior in the face before grabbing and pulling her hair.

She told the court that Hayward then poured water on the senior, grabbed the wheelchair and began to swing it left and right before dumping the contents of the senior’s purse on to her head and putting the purse in the trash.

Ms Trott said that she was frightened by the incident and did not expect a co-worker to strike a senior, but accepted that she did nothing to intervene.

She said that she made a report to the nurse on duty and they made a verbal report to the administrator, but Ms Trott said she did not give a statement to police until 13 days after the incident.

Another witness, Suzette Swan, told the court that she had seen Hayward strike a male senior suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s dementia several times in the leg.

Ms Swan said she was scared and upset about the incident, but did not say anything to an administrator until several weeks later on March 26, 2021.

Linda Simmons told the court that one day in March that year, she was walking down the corridor across the open door to the male resident’s room when she heard a commotion.

She said she did not go into the room, but was disturbed by the sound, and that Hayward later told her she had “punched the s***” out of the senior.

Hayward told the court that other staff at the facility were upset that she was getting more overtime than they were, claiming they had fabricated the complaints about her.

She accepted that she had jokingly called the first senior a thief and that the senior had thrown a vase at her, but said that she then had to yank the senior off her.

Hayward also denied ever punching the second senior, saying that she had been called into the room to help others take off his shirt because he was putting up a fight and swinging his arms about.

Mr Justice Wolffe said that while Mr Attridge noted inconsistencies in the evidence of the accusers, given the entirety of the evidence, he was entitled to find that the inconsistencies were minor and did not affect his overall acceptance of the evidence.

He also said that even though Ms Swan did not report the incident she witnessed until after hearing about the first allegations, there was nothing inherently wrong with a complaint coming as a result of someone else making a complaint.

“In the case-at-bar, the magistrate concluded that there was no sustainable evidence of collusion between Ms Swan and other care workers when she made her complaint,” Mr Justice Wolffe said.

“Having reviewed the evidence in this regard, the magistrate made the correct decision.”

The judge also said the magistrate was entitled to consider Hayward’s credibility on the stand and find that her version of events was implausible.

Mr Justice Wolffe said that evidence before the court was that care workers were trained to walk away from aggressive residents.

“Obviously, such a retreat by a care worker has the overriding objective of de-escalating an incident and thereby avoiding harm or injury to the care worker, and most importantly to the resident,” the judge wrote.

“The fact that the appellant breached policy and acted contrary to her training by physically engaging with the seniors, even if they may have been aggressive towards her — which the magistrate did not accept — is a critical factor which the magistrate properly took into consideration when determining whether to accept or reject the evidence of the prosecution witnesses vis-à-vis that of the appellant.

“He clearly chose the evidence of the former.”

Mr Justice Wolffe dismissed the entirety of the appeal and remitted the matter back to Magistrates’ Court for sentencing.

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