Care home manager and staff member guilty of ill-treatment of residents
The former manager and owner of a West Yorkshire care home and her senior care assistant have been found guilty of ill-treating residents.
Helen Burridge, 62, who ran the Riddlesden Rest Home in Carr Lane, Riddlesden, went on trial earlier this month alongside staff member Amy Dickinson. On Thursday, a jury at Bradford Crown Court found them guilty of horrific offences after more than nine hours of deliberation.
Burridge was found guilty of ill treatment charges relating to four elderly women while Dickinson, 24, was convicted on seven allegations involving six women and one male resident.
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At the start of the trial the jury heard that back in December 2019 police officers arrested the pair at the premises after an employee reported her concerns about what was happening at the 10-bedroom care home.
Prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe outlined details of the offences which included using derogatory language towards residents, failing to administer prescribed medication, locking an 84-year-old woman in her room and throwing a pillow or an inflatable exercise ball at the head of another vulnerable woman.
She told jurors: “Both defendants we say provided care which fell far below that which is expected for a care worker." It was said that one dementia sufferer was described by Burridge as “a greedy cow” after she took a piece of bread from another resident’s plate.
Ms Metcalfe said Burridge pushed the woman back into her chair and “slapped” her with the back of her hand. Another 86-year-old woman, who also suffered from dementia, was said to have had difficulty eating, but the defendants subjected her to a slur and called her “an idiot." They also became angry if she was taking too long with her food.
Ms Metcalfe alleged that when the woman was seen moving food around her plate Burridge told her to “stop p****** about” and tried to force her to eat the food from a spoon.
The court heard that another woman was not permitted to have lights on in her room even though she was left sitting in the dark on her own for large periods of time. Ms Metcalfe described how two bed-bound residents, a 90-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man, were left in heavily soiled clothing.
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A former employee claimed that when she went into the man’s room she was met with “a horrible rancid smell”.
Dickinson was said to have demonstrated “the pillow game” to a co-worker by throwing a pillow at the head of a 72-year-old woman with dementia. The court heard that Dickinson was accused of destroying another female resident’s medication by dissolving it in boiling water or throwing it in the bin rather administering it.
At the start of December 2019 Dickinson was allegedly “hesitant” about calling 999 for the same resident. The woman was immediately taken to hospital when the paramedics were called, but she passed away in hospital a week later.
Burridge, of Greenfield Road, Holmfirth, and Dickinson, of Fairfax Street, Silsden, will be sentenced on November 22.