Second youth tells of spoon burning

A second youth has told a jury of a woman burning his tongue with a spoon heated on a stove element, but the defence has accused him of getting together with another witness ‘‘to make it all up’’.

The youth was asked by Crown prosecutor Kathy Basire why he had let the woman on trial put the hot spoon into his mouth.

‘‘You have got no choice,’’ he said. ‘‘She puts a finger in your eye and then forces you to open your mouth.’’

He said that on this occasion, in 2012, it was ‘‘the worst one I got’’.

‘‘She got a metal spoon and put it on the stove top and then stuck it in my mouth for two minutes. She then put it back on the stove and then put it back in my mouth.’’

The two youths are witnesses against the 60-year-old woman in a Christchurch District Court trial before Judge Alistair Garland and a jury where she denies 29 charges of assault, assault with various household items as weapons, and

She puts a finger in your eye and then forces you to open your mouth. Alleged assault victim

poisoning for forcing a boy to eat chilli peppers. The charges allege assaults on the two boys and an elderly man who cannot give evidence – other than the playing of an evidential DVD interview – because he now has dementia.

Today is the fourth day of the trial, which may take two weeks. A 17-year-old youth told of having a heated spoon and a poker used to burn his mouth, and being made to eat chillis, on the trial’s first day.

The youth giving evidence yesterday said a family member would tell off the woman who is on trial about the treatment, but nothing else was done. He said he had a sick feeling when he realised that other people ‘‘saw things but didn’t do anything’’.

He did not tell adults about it because ‘‘none of them wanted to talk about it’’.

He said he was ‘‘pretty angry and sad’’ when he was told on Thursday that family members were going to came along to the trial and say he was lying.

He was questioned by defence counsel Josh Lucas about why he had not complained of the abuse in various meetings with social workers. He had said at one of those meetings that nothing was bothering him and he was very happy. He said he did not get hit at home but sometimes got yelled at.

Lucas put to him that he had never been hit by the woman, nor forced to eat chillis, nor burned with a spoon. The youth said his evidence was true.

Lucas said: ‘‘You and [the other youth] have got together and spoken to each other, and decided to make it all up so you can live somewhere else.’’ The youth denied that.

A teacher said he had spoken to the woman and a man after the older boy disclosed that he was being hit. They said the boy lied and stole and was naughty. They avoided the issue of the hitting.

The trial is continuing.