Doncaster care home pair sentenced for abuse

Two care assistants who abused severely disabled patients in South Yorkshire will be sentenced. James Hinds and Susan Murphy humiliated and assaulted vulnerable adults at a mental health unit in Doncaster.

After the pair were convicted last month, prosecutors said they were guilty of “an appalling abuse of trust and a violation of what society should be able to expect from people in the care profession”.

Hinds, 59, and Murphy, 43, were found guilty of a total of 25 counts of ill-treating outpatients at the Solar Centre, at St Catherine’s Hospital, by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court.

Two of their colleagues – care assistant Julie Burge and physiotherapy assistant Michael Barnard – were acquitted of all charges following a month-long trial.

Hinds and Murphy were found guilty of ill-treating 12 different outpatients between them at the centre.

All are extremely vulnerable adults, with limited communication abilities and a range of physical disabilities including blindness.

Many of the attacks involved patients being slapped and hit around the head.

Hinds threw one man into a wheelchair, dragged another to the toilet and hit another with a microphone.

Murphy locked one woman in a cupboard, the court heard.

All the incidents happened in a period between January 2005 and March 2007.

The police were called in after one member of staff decided to leave and made formal allegations about the mistreatment of patients.

Hinds was convicted of 10 charges and acquitted of a further nine after the jury of five men and seven women deliberated for two days.

Murphy was found guilty of 15 charges and was cleared of a further five.

Judge Rosalind Coe told the pair after their convictions: “You are both fully aware that custodial sentences are the likely outcome.”

Both were given conditional bail and had to surrender their passports after the judge heard they had been living in Spain.