Footage of abuse shown in EL court
Elderly woman assaulted by caregiver
VIDEO-footage showing former Lily Kirchman old-age home staff member Ncediswa Mkenkcele attacking the late Hope Shepherd was played in the East London Regional Court yesterday.
The hour-long footage showed Mkenkcele slapping and punching Shepherd, 84.
The accused is also seen holding a wooden chalk duster which she uses to assault the frail elderly woman.
Later, Mkenkcele is seen holding a deodorant spray which she uses to hit Shepherd on the head, causing her to bleed.
Shepherd is heard on the video telling her attacker that she is bleeding as a result of the assault.
Mkenkcele is then seen pushing Shepherd roughly into her wheelchair as she prepares to wash the elderly woman’s bleeding head.
The court was cleared before the footage was played. Only court officials, Shepherd’s family members, Mkenkcele, and her attorney Chuma Msamo remained to view the video.
Magistrate Ignatius Kitching presided over the matter, while Bonginkosi Mafa prosecuted.
Shepherd’s daughter, Deanne Guild, from Johannesburg, assisted the court with explaining what was going on in the footage.
She later testified there was a large vacuum between Lily Kirchman’s management and their caregivers.
“We felt there was a culture of abuse in the facility and management was not in touch with what was going on,” Guild testified.
Shepherd’s other daughter, Bernice Robertson, told the court that her mother’s R13 000-a-month stay at Lily Kirchman had ballooned to R18 000 by the time she was removed to a place of safety.
Mkenkcele resigned from the upmarket home soon after videofootage showing her attacking the elderly woman emerged.
She faces five counts of assault.
Robertson told the court that initially when she took her mother to the home she was paying R13 300 a month for her care.
However, when she started developing bruises and her arm got broken, the family forked out more for these to be treated. “We were paying out about R18 000 a month as a result of the medication for injuries she sustained due to the assaults,” Robertson said.
Shepherd died in December last year at the age of 85, months after she had been removed from Lily Kirchman.
The assaults were captured on a hidden camera placed in Shepherd’s room by Robertson in 2014, when she became suspicious about her mother’s unexplained injuries.
After witnessing the assaults on camera, Robertson approached the home’s management before laying a complaint with police. She then removed her mother from the home.
The trial continues this morning. —