Colleague tells of smacking, forcefeeding

A colleague of a pre-school teacher on trial for assaulting children in her care says she was ‘‘too scared’’ to confront her.

Lynn Euphemia Abraham, 59, is on trial at the Auckland District Court after denying 11 charges of assault against nine children.

She is accused of smacking five children on their hands, bottoms or thighs, putting sticky tape over a child’s mouth and washing another child’s mouth out with soap.

Giving evidence yesterday, her colleague Santosh Vermula said she ‘‘quite regularly’’ saw Abraham hit and force-feed children as young as 10 months old.

’’Most of the time [Abraham] was very strict, most of the time when children weren’t listening to her they would get a smack on the hand,’’ Vermula said.

‘‘Some of [the children] would cry, the older ones around four years old wouldn’t, but the little ones would cry.’’

Vermula, who had worked at the childcare facility since 2008, said she had worked with Abraham since she started in 2011.

She became ‘‘very concerned’’ about Abraham’s treatment of the children in 2015, she said.

When asked why she didn’t raise concerns about Abraham, Vermula said she had been ‘‘too scared’’.

‘‘One time I did [talk to Abraham about hitting a boy]. She got upset about it.’’

Vermula said the boy’s parents withdrew him from the childcare facility after he complained about being hit.

She was also questioned about Abraham’s alleged force-feeding of a 10-month-old baby.

The infant was in a horizontal position, Vermula said. ’’The baby was crying, the spoon was being pushed into the baby’s mouth until it opened it. I was not so happy about it, babies need to be in a sitting position to be fed.’’

Abraham’s colleague Jennifer Wong gave evidence yesterday morning, saying she also saw Abraham force-feed a baby.

Wong said she, as well as other carers, were concerned but did not want to say anything.

Abraham used a teaspoon to push food into the baby’s mouth, then held the baby on her lap with her hand over his mouth, Wong said. The baby had thrown up his food and Abraham forced the food back into his mouth.

However, defence lawyer Graeme Newell said Abraham did not force-feed the child vomit, and the food was not swallowed and merely spat out.

‘‘Whatever,’’ a distressed Wong replied.

Newell said all carers would attempt to spoon-feed the baby, and the baby’s parents insisted to Abraham that the baby was fed.

Wong said she also recalled seeing a child with sticky tape across her mouth. She alleged Abraham put four pieces of the tape across the child’s mouth for five minutes.

Newell said it was ‘‘impossible’’ for a child to keep tape on its mouth for five minutes.

Court documents allege the incidents occurred between 2011 and 2016.

The early childcare centre and the owner of the company have been granted interim name suppression, pending a decision by Judge June Jelas which was extended until yesterday afternoon.

The trial, before a jury of seven men and five women, is expected to finish on Friday.