Hillcroft nursing home staff sentenced for resident abuse

Weak and inadequate management led to the ‘gratuitous sport’ of mistreatment of elderly dementia sufferers at a nursing home, a judge has said.

Residents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster, were mocked, bullied and tormented because they would have no memory of the abuse.

One man had his foot stamped on and another was nearly tipped out of his wheelchair. The vulnerable victims were also pelted with bean bags and balls were thrown at their heads “for entertainment”.

In November, Carol Ann Moore (54), Katie Cairns (27), and Gemma Pearson (28) were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court of ill-treatment or neglect of a person who lacks capacity under the Mental Capacity Act.

Moore, the care team leader, was found guilty of one count in which she struck a resident on the unit for residents with “challenging behaviour”. The court heard that she walked up to the male victim and slapped him after a complaint had been made by the man’s wife about a lack of activities at the home.

Cairns was convicted of three charges including stamping on a man’s foot, throwing bean bags at another man and mocking another.

Pearson, of Carnforth, was also convicted of attempting to tip another resident out of his wheelchair.

Darren Smith (35) had admitted ahead of the trial eight counts of ill-treatment, in which he threw bean bags or balls at eight residents.

All the offences spanned from May 2010 to September 2011 and related to seven men and one woman, all aged in their 70s or 80s, with the eldest aged 85.

Sentencing them, Judge Michael Byrne said: “There was, at the relevant times, a lax regime, with weak and inadequate management on the unit, which allowed the kind of conduct to carry on undetected and without proper and adequate control.”

He continued: “Some of the offences were gratuitous sport at the expense of vulnerable victims. Each of these defendants broke the trust placed in them.”

Moore was jailed for four months. Cairns was jailed for five months and Smith got eight months. Pearson was given a 12-month community order with supervision and told to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work.

Following sentencing, Lancashire County Council apologised for the delay in contacting police about the allegations.

Councillor Tony Martin, cabinet member for adult and community services at the council, said: “We are sorry there was a delay in sharing the allegations with the police.”

“Since April 2013 all safeguarding alerts we receive are now passed to a multi-agency safeguarding hub, where they are dealt with by social workers, health workers and police officers working alongside each other,” he added.

The CQC has announced it is planning “major changes” to the way care homes are inspected.

Malcolm Bower-Brown, CQC’s regional director for the North said: “We are planning major changes to the way we inspect care homes and other social care services.

“As part of this process we want to learn all we can from this case and have met recently with some of the family members involved.”

“We are extremely grateful to them for sharing their experience with us and have listened carefully to their suggestions for improvements to our inspection processes,” he added.