Alleged elder abuse victim "Auntie Em" was a "very keen and alert woman" who was vocal with complaints and would have spoken up if she was given roach-infested food to eat, her son-in-law told a court yesterday.

Patrick Hayward Sr., of Cox's Hill, Pembroke, was giving evidence for the second day in a civil case brought by caregiver Yvonne Dawson against his wife Rosamund, the adopted daughter of 96-year-old Wilhelmina Liburd.

He was asked by his wife's lawyer Ray DeSilva: "What do you say to allegations that there were roaches in the kitchen so that it was likely that Mrs. Liburd, with her poor eyesight, would have not been aware of roaches in her food?"

Mr. Hayward replied: "Mrs. Liburd was a very keen and alert woman. You couldn't pass $5 for $50 past her."

He added: "When she ate food, it if didn't taste the way she was used to it, she would let you know right away."

He said his mother-in-law, who has cataracts, was nearly blind but could see his face and read her bible.

A claim that Mrs. Liburd had to drink tap water from a dirty tank while the rest of the family drank bottled water was "a lot of rubbish", he said.

He also refuted an allegation that she was banned from using her bathtub.

"Mrs. Liburd is vocal when she has any complaints," he said. "When she wanted to say something to me, she said it."

Rosamund Hayward, of Upland Street, Devonshire, also gave evidence for the first time yesterday in the case brought against her by Ms Dawson, who claims she owes her $25,000 in unpaid caregiving fees.

Mother-of-two Mrs. Hayward told Magistrates' Court she did not agree to pay for Ms Dawson to look after her mother at weekends after Ms Dawson was hired by Auntie Em's nephew in October 2006.

The administrative assistant said she was prepared to care for Mrs. Liburd, who adopted her when she was a teenager, on evenings and weekends and that the nephew, Stephen Hayward, offered to pay Ms Dawson $800 a week to look after Mrs. Liburd from Monday to Friday.

She said Mr. Woodley never discussed payment for Ms Dawson at weekends with her but that Ms Dawson turned up on Saturdays and Sundays.

"I did not comply to pay for weekends because I felt if I was there, there was no need for money to be paid to anyone for the care of my mother," she said.

The Royal Gazette revealed last year that the hiring of Ms Dawson to look after Mrs. Liburd in the home she shared with Mr. and Mrs. Hayward, her two grandchildren and a great grandson, was the catalyst for the authorities becoming involved in the family's affairs.

Environmental health officers found that the filthy, cluttered, roach and rodent infested Upland Street home was unfit for human habitation and a social worker deemed Mrs. Liburd at risk of elder abuse.

Ms Dawson took Mrs. Liburd into her own home in late 2006; the frail widow, who had part of her leg amputated last year due to gangrene, has never returned to Upland Street and is now at the Continuing Care Unit at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

This newspaper's initial reports on Mrs. Liburd referred to her only as Auntie Em, as her nephew calls her, but he has since made her identity public.