A former care home worker who was convicted of abusing seniors narrowly avoided prison yesterday.

Wendy Hayward, 54, was handed a suspended sentence in Magistrates’ Court after a lengthy appeal of her conviction.

Hayward was found guilty in March 2023, after a trial, of two counts of abuse of a senior.

She launched an appeal, arguing that the magistrate, Craig 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.

During the trial, several care workers outlined the assaults they had overheard or witnessed.

Simone Trott told the court that on March 25, 2021, she saw the defendant jokingly call a female resident suffering from “advanced Alzheimer’s dementia” a “thief”.

The woman, who was in a wheelchair, became agitated and threw a vase at Hayward, which did not hit her but splashed water on her.

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

Hayward, according to Ms Trott, then poured water on the senior and swung her left and right in the wheelchair, before dumping the contents of the senior’s purse on to her head and putting the purse in the trash.

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

She made a report to the nurse on duty but did not give a statement to police until 13 days after the incident.

Suzette Swan, another care worker, said she saw Hayward strike a male resident whom also suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s several times in the leg.

She said she was scared and upset over the incident but did not report it 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 same male resident’s room when she heard a commotion.

She said she was disturbed by the sound did not go into the room — only for Hayward to later tell her she had “punched the s***” out of the senior.

During her trial, Hayward said that staff fabricated the complaints because they were upset she was getting more overtime than them.

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

Hayward also denied punching the second senior. She said that she had been called into the room to help others take off his shirt because he was agitated.

Mr Attridge wrote a judgment that was delivered by magistrate Maria Sofianos yesterday.

He wrote that, while Hayward’s actions crossed the threshold for a custodial sentence, they seemed out of character.

He added that she was unlikely to reoffend and had since led a “helpful life”.

Ms Sofianos sentenced Hayward to a combined total of 12 months’ imprisonment that was suspended for three years.

She also had her name added to the senior abuse register.

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