Jury sent to decide fate of daycare centre manager

Lynn Abraham appears in the Auckland District Court on charges of abusing children in her role as a Pre-school teacher. 1 May 2017 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Jason Oxenham.

The jury to decide the fate of the daycare centre manager charged with assaulting children in her care has been sent to consider its verdict.

Lynn Euphemia Abraham, 59, is defending 11 charges against nine children, all under 5, in a jury trial at the Auckland District Court this week.

The alleged offending occurred at the Bright Minds Daycare Centre in St Johns from 2011 and continued through until last May.

During the trial, the court heard from three former staff members who said they saw Abraham force-feed children, smack their hands, tape a girl's mouth shut and wash a boy's mouth out with soap.

Abraham denied taping the girl's mouth shut or force-feeding children and told the court she only "tapped" them on the hands when they misbehaved.

And the manager said she washed outside the boy's mouth, not inside.

In her summing up of the case this morning, Judge June Jelas said the allegations were not about tapping or directing children's hands.

The charges related to a pattern of behaviour where Abraham would strike a child to the extent other staff members could hear the force.

One of the workers, Jennifer Wong, recalled seeing Abraham smack a boy on the hand.

When he continued to cry, she allegedly hit him on the bottom and said he had "nothing to cry about".

Wong said she also saw the manager tape a girl's mouth shut because she was being noisy and force-feed children with a spoon then forcibly move their jaws with her hand.

During her evidence, Wong frequently got very upset and had to be excused to compose herself.

Judge Jelas told the jurors they shouldn't allow feelings of sympathy for Wong or prejudice that she hadn't spoken out earlier affect their decision.

The judge gave a demeanour direction and said they should be careful not to "jump to conclusions" about Wong's evidence.

How she gave evidence should not be the only factor they took into account, she said.

"It's been shown over time that looks can be deceiving."

She reminded the jury of the presumption of innocence and that the onus was on the Crown to prove Abraham's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The defence did not have to prove her innocence, the judge said.

In his closing yesterday, defence lawyer Graeme Newell said no one was able to corroborate Wong's testimony that Abraham put tape on a girl's mouth.

But Judge Jelas said there was no requirement to corroborate the evidence if the jury decided to accept it as accurate.

The judge said the jurors would also have to decide if there had been forced used, that it was for the purposes of preventing or minimising harm to a child and not for the purpose of correction.