Elderly woman’s nurse convicted of assault

A NURSE caught on camera severely beating an 84-year-old cancer patient at an upmarket East London frail care home was found guilty in the East London Magistrate’s Court yesterday on all five of the counts of assault she faced.

Ncediswa Mkenkcele, 42, was on trial for the January and February 2015 assaults on Hope Shepherd at Berea’s Lily Kirchmann Complex.

The assaults were captured on a hidden camera set up in a TV set placed in Shepherd’s room by her daughter, Bernice Robertson.

Presiding magistrate Ignatius Kitching said in his judgment that Mkenkcele’s actions had haunted Shepherd long after she had been moved from the old age home.

“Once [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 that with the help of the video footage, the court was able to witness first hand the injuries Mkenkcele had inflicted on the elderly woman.

“The nature and extent of the assault . . . varies from assaulting her with an open hand, [punching her], throwing her onto the bed and kicking her.

“Mrs Shepherd [died] in December 2015, just seven months after those incidents,” Kitching said.

He said Shepherd’s daughters had testified about the events, including unexplained bruises on her body, which led them to install a hidden camera in her room.

“Their mother suffered from dementia and couldn’t account for the injuries she sustained,” he said.

“The explanations they were given by the staff was that their mother would injure herself by falling and by hitting out at the nurses.

“Visiting her mother one morning, a bruise on her arm was so profound that Mrs Robertson took her mother for X-rays, [which] showed 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 had been no such injury.

“She also noticed head injuries which were visible – those were attributed to falling by staff.”

On viewing the video, Kitching said, Shepherd’s daughters were horrified to see Mkenkcele twisting and shaking the very arm that had been broken.

“The accused was also seen kicking their mother on the hip where she had undergone a replacement operation,” he said.

He said there could be no doubt that Mkenkcele was guilty on all counts.

Mkenkcele did not testify. Her attorney, Chuma Msamo, also did not call any witnesses.

Mkenkcele was the primary caregiver to Shepherd during her R13 000-a-month stay at the facility. Sentencing was set for March 30. Robertson said afterwards: “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 the beatings were that she gave our mother, a frail 84-year-old, without any provocation.

“Hopefully this will deter others from abusing vulnerable members of society.”