Carer Took Picture Of Patient’s Privates

A callous care worker at an old folks’ home took a photo of a 91-year-old patient’s private parts to show her boyfriend.

Mandy Polson, 23, used her mobile phone to take the picture of the victim in a toilet. The man was suffering from dementia and could not walk after a stroke.

Polson had told her boyfriend that the patient had unusually large genitals. The boyfriend didn’t believe her and she photographed the victim as proof.

Polson later showed the photo to a horrified colleague, who shopped her to police.

And yesterday, she pleaded guilty to breaching the peace by taking the photo without the victim’s knowledge or consent.

A sheriff deferred sentence for reports and warned her that she could face jail.

Polson, of Bryce Avenue, Carron, Falkirk, sat nervously in the dock at the town’s sheriff court as her lawyer explained why she took the photo earlier this year at the New Carron Nursing Home.

Solicitor Mike Lowrie said the care assistants at the home often gossiped about the size of the victim’s genitals.

He added: “She decided to tell her boyfriend about it but she felt he didn’t believe her and she took the photo when in a toilet with this man.

“It was an unpleasant, badly thought out and stupid thing to do, which Miss Polson is paying the penalty for.

“Miss Polson showed the photo to a colleague, who was offended by the fact this poor man has been photographed.”

The court heard the colleague called police and Polson deleted the picture as she waited for officers.

But she later confessed: “I was told the size of him and told my boyfriend but he didn’t believe me so I took a picture. It was stupid.”

Prosecutors claimed there was a sexual element to the offence but Mr Lowrie denied it, saying: “It would seem unusual that a 23-year-old girl would take a picture of an old man’s genitalia for sexual gratification.”

The lawyer added that, “for obvious reasons”, Polson was no longer a carer.