Fury as worker who attacked a frail patient is spared prison
CAMPAIGNERS reacted furiously last night after a carer who beat a widowed Parkinson’s sufferer in a shocking example of elderly abuse escaped a jail sentence.
In the latest case of the elderly being targeted for abuse, Alijicia Sadeghi-Taghiabad hit defenceless Brian Chandler on two occasions at a care home last March.
But after being convicted of assault she was ordered to carry out just 150 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,035 compensation.
The case comes just days after TV campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, 77, backed a Daily Express call for justice ministers to make elder abuse an aggravated offence so courts can impose tough sentences on those who exploit the helpless.
The attacks on Mr Chandler, 73, took place at Callands Care Home in Warrington, Cheshire, before a whistle-blower alerted his family. Sadeghi-Taghiabad, 33, was convicted after a two-day trial at Warrington magistrates court.
John Banasko, defending, said: “It is a pity as her heart was in that profession. Now she may never be able to help vulnerable others again.”
Mr Banasko said the home was understaffed and Sadeghi-Taghiabad would have to “rush around” to perform duties. He added: “This is no excuse for how she acted, but [it] could have been avoided.
“She took the decisions initiated by management in good grace and got on with it. She liked Brian and never had a problem with him. She was upset and angry and it must have over-spilled that morning when she dealt with him.”
Mr Chandler’s daughter, Jacqui Bickerton, said her father, who had Parkinson’s, dementia, a chronic lung condition and had suffered 25 strokes, became “scared, unsettled, sad and nervous” and would look out of his bedroom door and ask for reassurance that the carer was not coming back.
The pensioner died six months after the attack and last May Callands was ordered to improve after inspectors found a staff shortage led to residents looking “unkempt”, and some did not have basic needs met.
The home had an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission last March – the same month Mr Chandler was attacked – and was later issued with a warning after the commission found four breaches of health and social care regulations.
A spokesman for owner HC One said: “Providing residents with kind and quality care is at the heart of everything we do. We are working closely with the CQC and the relevant authorities to ensure that improvements are made across the home as soon as possible.”
Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said: “We need a zero-tolerance approach, whether the abuse is physical or mental cruelty, financial manipulation, theft or neglect.
“Care homes have a moral and professional duty of care to some of the most vulnerable members of our society which they have a responsibility to uphold at all times.
“It is down to the leaders of care homes to set the right tone and create a culture in which poor care, neglect and abuse are totally unacceptable and in which staff have the confidence to whistle-blow if something bad happens, safe in the knowledge that they will be supported and firm action will be taken against the perpetrators as a result.
“We would encourage anyone who suspects an older person is at risk to contact their social services department or the police without delay.”
Around a million older people are victims of physical, financial, psychological and sexual abuse each year but campaigners say because age is not a strand of hate crime, prosecutors are unable to apply for tougher sentences.
ACARE home worker, Alijicia Sadeghi-Taghiabad, beat Brian Chandler, a 73-year-old man with Parkinson’s, six months before Mr Chandler’s death. She was found guilty of assault but has escaped jail. The judge handed her 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered her to pay £1,035.
This seems a disturbingly lenient sentence. We have seen many cases of care home cruelty in recent years and any compassionate person would feel that if you sign up to look after the vulnerable and end up assaulting them, then a stiff prison sentence should be forthcoming.