A former care home worker who abused two senior citizens will be sentenced next week.

Magistrate Craig Attridge found Wendy Hayward guilty of two counts of senior citizen abuse in March 2023.

Hayward, 52, appealed the verdict, claiming that Mr Attridge failed to properly consider evidence in the case.

However, Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe upheld Mr Attridge’s ruling in May and sent the matter back to Magistrates’ Court for sentencing.

Simone Trott told the court that Hayward slapped, grabbed and pulled the hair of a woman in a wheelchair, who was suffering from “advanced Alzheimer’s dementia”, at the Sylvia Richardson Care Facility on March 25, 2021.

Ms Trott said Hayward then poured water on the victim, grabbed her wheelchair, dropped the contents of a purse on her head and threw the bag away during the incident, which occurred after the senior threw a vase at Hayward when she called her a thief.

Another witness, Suzette Swan, said she watched Hayward strike a male resident, who also suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s dementia, several times on a date that March, but did not report the incident until weeks later.

Hayward accepted that she had jokingly called the first victim a thief but claimed she had to pull the woman off her after the vase was thrown.

She also denied striking the second senior and claimed the witnesses fabricated the complaints.

Mr Justice Wolffe said when delivering his decision: “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.”

Hayward reappeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, when prosecutor Matthew Frick requested she be sentenced to between 18 and 24 months behind bars for the offences.

He said: “The court needs to send a clear message that abuse will not be tolerated.”

Vaughan Caines, Hayward’s lawyer, highlighted that his client had been a care worker for 25 years, maintained her innocence and had no prior convictions.

Mr Caines said Hayward had a “strong sense of family and family support” and requested she be given a suspended prison sentence.

Hayward told the court that she did everything for clients and treated them like family.

Mr Attridge adjourned the case to Monday for sentencing and extended Hayward’s bail until that time.

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