A 26-year-old former Manchester daycare worker who pleaded guilty to physically abusing two girls, ages 1 and 3, in her care will be sentenced Wednesday.
According to police, Devan Vanover, of Willimantic, yelled in a 3-year-old girl's ear and grabbed her face at the ABC Daycare on Hartford Road in Manchester, leaving a red mark during an incident that a colleague captured on video Aug. 14, 2014.
Vanover is also accused of forcing a pacifier into the mouth of a 1-year-old girl who was crying and fussy that same day. Her coworker told police the incidents happened 20 minutes apart, according to the warrant for Vanover's arrest.
Police said Vanover's mother owns the facility.
Vanover's sentencing "will bring a close to an incident which took place on August 14, 2014 at the ABC Daycare Center in Manchester," according to Marc N. Needelman, attorney for two child victims and their families.
Needelman will be at the sentencing at Manchester Superior Court on behalf of his clients.
"Society and its judicial system must send a strong signal that no child should ever be harmed; particularly those who we entrust to caregivers," Needelman said.
Local
Police said Vanover had completed drug rehab before the incident and that she has a history of drug abuse, as well as a "lengthy history" with the Department of Children and Families.
Her coworker told police Vanover regularly smokes e-cigarettes in the daycare and has abused the child in the past. She also took a photo of a red mark on the child's jawline that resembled a fingerprint, according to police.
ABC Daycare previously declined to comment on the case.