Care Home Staff Jailed For Mistreating Residents

Three care home workers who encouraged residents to fight and racially abuse each other were jailed for six months each today. Over the course of a year the three systematically preyed on the mentally and physically vulnerable, London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

{mosimage}Eulalee Hall, 51, from Highbury, 31-year-old Noleen Bailey, from Haringey, and Glendeen Nedd, 36, of Walthamstow, variously admitted six counts of ill-treating patients and one of wilful neglect.

The three were arrested after their “humiliating” treatment of residents was secretly filmed on a mobile phone by a colleague.

Passing sentence, Judge Alan Pardoe QC told the trio that those under their care needed to be looked after with ‘skill and dedication’. “There can be no excuse for the verbal abuse of the mentally disabled, still less the cruel ill-treatment of them,” the judge said.

The court heard that the now closed Medina Road residential care home in Holloway, north London, was run by Craegmoor plc for Islington and Camden council. Its lone male patient was never targeted, but care for the three women residents was a different matter.

Janine Sheff, prosecuting, showed the court some of the mobile phone footage. In one clip, Hall could be seen encouraging a Down’s syndrome sufferer to kick a deaf and autistic patient. The barrister said separate video footage pictured Bailey and Nedd laughing hysterically as they encouraged the Down’s syndrome sufferer to call the third woman resident they were supposed to be looking after a “white bitch”.

On another occasion, the safety of two patients was endangered during a bus trip when a student nurse was left to look after them, the court was told.

Also in the dock was care home manager Diane Butler, 47, of Haringey, who was convicted by a jury of wilful neglect. Sentencing her to 150 hours community service, the judge said it was clear she had carried out her duties in a “kind and effective” way apart from on one occasion when she heard of the incident on the bus, but failed to take any action against those responsible.

Outside court, case officer detective sergeant Paul Kingdon said: “I was appalled by what happened, but now I feel justice has been done.

“The three care workers deliberately took advantage of those who were supposed to be in their care. It is abhorrent that they have sought to humiliate these residents, who are particularly vulnerable due to their severe learning difficulties. This appears to have been done purely for their own amusement.

“The despicable behaviour of Hall, Nedd and Bailey, people who the residents had no other option but to rely on, has left the victims and their families alarmed and upset,” he added.