A Canberra aged care worker, who was accused of grabbing a 17-year-old colleague by the throat and yelling “I could kill you” after she ordered too many biscuits, has been cleared. Lakshman Senanayake was charged with assault over the incident, which took place in June 2016. It was alleged he blew up at a colleague, grabbing her by the neck with “eight-out-of-ten” force, after she ordered biscuits for residents’ morning tea without first checking if biscuits were in stock. “That’s when he grabbed me around the throat and said, ‘I could kill you’,” the woman told the court in evidence last year. It was alleged that after Mr Senanayake grabbed the girl, she said, “You’ve gone too far this time”, to which he replied, “Sorry darl”. The victim had given evidence that in the week preceding the alleged incident, Mr Senanayake had been speaking down to her, saying she could not do her job properly. However, Mr Senanayake said he only approached the girl to remind her to check the biscuit supply before ordering more, and that their hands briefly came into contact when she gestured for him to go away. Magistrate Robert Cook found there were several inconsistencies in the woman’s evidence, and criticised the police investigation into the alleged assault.
