60-day sentence for abuse of senior

A British Columbia caregiver who pleaded guilty to assaulting a partially paralyzed 88-yearold woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease has been sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Lydia Llanto must serve the time consecutively from Friday to Sunday evenings for the abuse that was captured on a video camera installed at a care home.

Provincial court Judge Wilson Lee says in a written ruling issued in April that concerns about potential abuse against Malekah Kazemi came to light when she asked her son not to leave during a visit, telling him: “This lady hits me.”

Lee says the woman couldn’t provide any details because of her advanced Alzheimer’s and paralysis due to a stroke, but her son, Dr. Kamyar Kazemi, set up a video camera in the room to see what was happening.

He says Kazemi watched a number of instances of Llanto hitting his mother on the head, face, mouth, legs and forehead, and in one case she held up a fruit knife in a threatening way.

The ruling says the abuse was recorded between Nov. 3-5, 2016, though the Crown suggests it’s indicative of conduct that had occurred for much longer.

Kazemi was not able to provide a victim impact statement, but her son told a sentencing hearing that Llanto was a trusted and well-loved care aide for his mother for four years before he learned what was going on.