Elderly woman’s attacker guilty on 5 counts
‘Not surprising’ she did not testify
ANURSE caught on camera severely beating an 84-year-old cancer patient at an upmarket East London frail care home was found guilty yesterday in the East London Magistrate’s Court of all five counts of assault she faced.
Ncediswa Mkenkcele, 42, was on trial for the January and February 2015 assaults on Hope Shepherd at the Lily Kirchmann Complex in Berea.
The assaults were captured on a hidden camera set up in a television set placed in Shepherd’s room by her daughter, Bernice Robertson.
In his 25-minute long judgment presiding magistrate Ignatius Kitching yesterday said Mkenkcele’s actions had haunted Shepherd long after she had been moved from the home.
“Once they (Shepherd’s daughters Deanne Guild and Robertson) had moved their mother from the establishment they would notice their mother would sometimes raise her arms in an apparent attempt to defend herself whenever they approached her,” Kitching said.
He said with the help of the video footage the court was able to witness first-hand the injuries inflicted on the elderly victim by Mkenkcele.
“The nature and extent of the assault is described and varies from assaulting her with an open hand, beating with fists, throwing her onto the bed and kicking her.
“Mrs Shepherd passed away in December 2015, just seven months after those incidents,” Kitching said.
Shepherd’s daughters testified about the events that led them to hide a camera in the room, including mysterious bruises on her body.
“Their mother suffered dementia and couldn’t herself account for the injuries she sustained.
“The explanations that they were given by the staff was that their mother would injure herself by falling and also by hitting out at the nursing staff,” Kitching said.
“On visiting her mother one morning a bruise on the arm was so profound that Mrs Robertson took her mother for X-Ray.
“It was revealed that her arm was fractured. Again there was no plausible explanation given by the staff.
“Mrs Robertson was then convinced that her mother’s fractured arm was a non-accidental injury because she had been to her mother the previous night and there was no such injury.
“In other words her injuries must have been inflicted the previous night.
“She also noticed head injuries which were visible, those were attributed to falling by staff.” Kitching said on witnessing the beatings on video, Shepherd’s daughters were horrified and had seen the accused twisting and shaking the very same arm that had been broken.
“The accused was also seen kicking their mother on the hip where she had undergone a replacement operation,” Kitching said.
He said there could be no doubt that Mkenkcele was guilty of all counts as there was no defence offered regarding any of the counts.
“The court is satisfied that the state proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of all these counts and therefore she is convicted on all five counts,” Kitching ruled.
During the course of the trial Mkenkcele did not take the stand to testify and her attorney, Chuma Msamo, did not call any witnesses.
Mkenkcele was the primary caregiver to Shepherd during her R13 000a-month stay at the facility.
Robertson earlier testified that the cost of her mother’s monthly stay at Lily Kirchmann had ballooned to R18 000 as a result of the injuries she sustained through the beatings. Sentencing was set for March 30 to allow reports from probation and correctional services officers.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch soon after the guilty verdict Robertson said: “We as a family are very pleased the accused has been found guilty on all five charges and we are hoping for the hardest sentence possible.
“It is not surprising she chose not to take the stand.
“She obviously, when watching the footage, saw just how brutal were the beatings she gave our mother, a frail 84-yearold, without any provocation.”
Mkenkcele is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30.