A carer at Fra Diegu Home in Ħamrun was arraigned in court this morning charged with slightly injuring two siblings when he pushed a 10-year-old boy as the boy was about to strike her.
Prosecuting officer Robert Vella told the court that the mother of the 10-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister, both of whom were under a care order and resided at Fra Diegu, reported to the police that her son had phoned her from the home to confess that he had flung a soft toy at the carer and claimed that he was beaten up.
The mother had also spoken to another carer who was present to double-check her son. This carer confirmed, and went on to inform her superiors and file a police report.
Taking the witness stand, the accused's former colleague, who had filed the police report, told Magistrate Josette Demicoli that she had clashed with the accused after mistakenly reporting for work in the afternoon instead of later in the day as she had not realised she was on night shift.
Upon seeing her, the accused had verbally snapped at her in a gruff and aggressive way in front of the children, the carer testified. She then went home and returned to Fra Diegu at 7pm.
The children were still awake and listening to music at the time but were behaving in a very unruly manner, the carer continued, adding that the accused was trying to put one of the younger children to sleep and kept asking the other three children to be quiet.
The children, the carer qualified, were under care orders and often displayed challenging behaviour.
"It is our duty not to stoke the fire but to be good role models for them," the carer told the court.
She explained how the children were often prone to meltdowns, tantrums and aggressive behaviour. The 10-year-old boy in question was very strong and could injure people if he hit out at them. And when the children became angry, they tended to become more aggressive and turned on to the carers, she said.
It appeared that the boy became increasingly agitated because he was separated from his sister in preparation for bedtime. The carer tried to unsuccessfully calm him down, at which point the boy started to beat her up. The accused managed to pull the boy off her colleague and locked him out of the flatlet within the home until he calmed down.
Since it was nighttime, the nuns had switched off the lights and the boy, being afraid of the dark, became increasingly truculent and attempted to break down the door.
"You'll see whether I won't manage to come in," the carer reported the boy as saying, at which the accused allegedly replied: "Try it, I'm not afraid of you".
"Her challenging words served to agitate him even more," the carer told the court.
Once he entered, the accused warned him that she would phone the police if he kept behaving in that manner. At that, he threw an even bigger tantrum, and started hurling insults at the accused, calling her a "whore".
He began to fling soft toys at the accused's head and then charged at her, making as if to punch her, the witness continued.
At that, the accused pushed him, causing the boy to bump his back against the handle of the wall unit behind him.
His sister tried to stick up for her brother and, to keep the situation from escalating further, the accused twisted her arm and brought her down to floor in an effort to subdue her, the carer continued.
The two children were taken to the Floriana Health Centre where the doctor detected blood in the boy's urine sample and referred him to Mater Dei Hospital. The hospital confirmed that the children had suffered from slight injuries.
Both the accused and the witness were suspended pending the results of an internal inquiry launched at Fra Diegu. The accused was reinstated after the home found that she was cleared of any disciplinary action, the accused's lawyer said.
The witness was asked to return to work as well, but was downgraded from full to part time. The witness said she chose to leave the job as she had disagreed with the manger on a number of issues unrelated to the incident.
The case continues.