Youth cleared of assaulting care worker

Monday 20 August 2018

Jersey’s Youth Court has cleared a 16-year-old boy living in a children’s home of assaulting a member of staff.

Giving evidence in the Magistrate's Court on Friday, the care worker said he’d come on shift at 07:00 on February 28 this year and was going about his usual tasks when at about 12:30 he received a telephone call from one of the boy's family members.

They told the worker that they had tried the boy's mobile, but that it kept going to voicemail, and therefore asked the staff member to pass on a message to ring back.

The boy was in his bedroom and staff had been knocking on his door almost hourly since 08:00 to try and get him up because an Education employee was coming to the home to see him at 13:00.

According to the worker, he went and knocked on the boy’s door at about 12:45 to pass on the message to call back. The boy shouted abuse at him, was swearing and told him to go away. He knocked again and then went in and passed the message on.

Whilst the worker was standing in the doorway, it was claimed he boy threw a small tin of lip balm at him which missed, then a cube of snooker chalk which hit him on the chest. The boy was then reported to have leapt out of bed and, using his open palms on the worker’s shoulders, shoved him backwards into the corridor. Another member of staff who was standing behind the worker observing him managed to steady him and stop him from falling over. Giving evidence in court later, that colleague said his fellow worker was visibly shocked.

Pictured: Defence Advocate James Bell told the court his client hadn't assaulted the care worker, but had simply nudged him as he rushed to go to the toilet.

Defending the youth, Advocate James Bell told Court that his client had a different version of events. He claimed the worker had entered the boy’s room without permission; that staff had been continually knocking on the boy’s door; and that the boy hadn’t attacked the care worker but had been attempting to get to the toilet and had simply brushed past him.

Giving his own account of events, the boy admitted throwing the chalk, but said it was in frustration and it wasn’t aimed at the man. He denied pushing the man and made a counter claim against the worker, saying he had come into the room and had tried to wake him by tapping him on the shoulders. That had prompted the boy to tell the worker, “If you touch me again, I’ll put you ten foot under."

The boy also told the court that he suffers from ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This, he claimed, makes him emotional and causes him to swear a lot. He also admitted not getting on with the worker who’d accused him of the assault.

Summing up, Advocate Bell told the court the emphasis was on the prosecution to prove that an assault had taken place, and if the panel had any doubts, they could not find him guilty.

The defendant was subsequently acquitted of the charge by Relief Magistrate Nuno Santos-Costa, who sat with and two Youth Court panel members.