Care home nurse cleared on appeal of assault charges

A JUDGE yesterday cleared a nurse convicted of assaulting two vulnerable patients.

Irene Nene jubilantly shouted God is Good in the dock at Durham Crown Court after Recorder Peter Johnson ruled that the evidence which convicted her at a magistrates court in May was unreliable.

Ms Nene had denied assaulting two dementia sufferers, an 89-year-old man and a woman, who is in her mid-60s, on the same day in October last year at Hawthorn Care Home in Peterlee.

She was convicted after a two-day trial at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court.

Magistrates sentenced Ms Nene, who has no previous convictions, to 26 weeks in custody, suspended for 18 months, and ordered her to carry out 150 hours of community work and pay costs of £250.

The 60-year-old mother-of-five, who spent 36 years as nurse and is originally from South Africa, appealed against both her sentence and her conviction. Colleague Glen Richardson reported Ms Nene to police, claiming she slapped the woman on her leg and the man on his hand.

Yesterday Mr Richardson told the appeal hearing: “I felt uncomfortable about what I had seen. It wasn’t nice. I thought it wasn’t right.”

Mr Richardson, under cross examination from Richard Herrmann, representing Ms Nene, agreed the elderly man could become agitated and aggressive, but said he would calm him down by singing him nursery rhymes. He claimed Ms Nene struck the woman on her legs when she refused to go to bed.

Staff nurse Marjorie Burdon told the court Mr Richardson said to colleagues: “I cannot stand Irene any more. She’s horrible to the residents.” But before Ms Nene took to the witness stand to give her own evidence the judge dramatically halted the trial, saying witness accounts were inconsistent and that the evidence given was “insufficient for a criminal conviction”.

Ms Nene, who used to live in Peterlee but who now lives in London, declined to comment afterwards.

She was awarded costs.