Carer poured cold water on sleepy patient
A CRUEL care home worker faces jail after pouring water over a dementia-stricken pensioner to get him out of bed.
Kate Darby, 36, branded frail Patrick Reynolds “lazy” and emptied a cup over his head before telling a shocked colleague: “This is what you do.”
Darby was convicted of wilfully neglecting an individual following a trial.
Her colleagues had reported her after the incident at Bryn Haven care home in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in January 2020.
Tameside magistrates’ court heard Darby had been helping new starter Laura Goddard learn the ropes at the 41-room home.
At the hearing, Ms Goddard said they roused Mr Reynolds, who is in his 80s, at about 9.30am.
She said: “He was still in bed and asleep. She said something about how he can be quite lazy and she usually sprinkles water on him to get him up.
“She asked me to do it, but I did not want to do that. Miss Darby then went to get some water and she said, ‘I will show you what I usually do.’
“She walked up to his bed and chucked the water. I was in shock to be honest. I did not know what to say.
“The water went over Pat and the bed. He was asleep at the time. He was very angry.
“There was quite a lot of water and it had soaked through to the mattress.
“Her actions shocked me and I later spoke to one of the managers that day.”
Darby told the hearing her colleagues made up the allegations and denied ever throwing water over the resident. She said: “There is no truth to this suggestion. None at all.
“I never sprinkled Mr Reynolds with water. They have fabricated what they have seen and heard.”
But convicting her, chair of the bench Richard Lenderyou told her: “We found the evidence to be consistent, factual and reliable.”
Darby will be sentenced next month. The Daily Express-backed Antonia’s Law campaign has received strong support as we seek to end care home abuse.
Grieving Tony Stowell, 52, is behind the campaign after his late mother Antonia, 87, suffered a decline in health in her residential home.
Tony is calling for relatives to have the right to put CCTV in a lovedone’s care home room.