Cruel care worker is jailed after abusing disabled man
A CARE worker who abused a disabled man so badly he soiled himself has been jailed.
Belinda Orubu was angry with the client she was employed to care for and banned him from going to the toilet by refusing to unlock his front door as they returned from a shopping trip.
The distressed man – who suffers from autism and requires 24-hour care to carry out everyday tasks – had to then ‘urinate and soil’ himself on his doorstep before being forced to sit naked and unwashed on his couch.
Orubu, 48, also assaulted the man, who is described as epileptic and non-verbal, by tipping him off his seat, which led to him landing awkwardly on a wooden floor.
She then tormented the man by locking all the doors within his home, knowing he would become agitated due to his obsessive compulsive disorder.
The horrific mistreatment was witnessed by a second support worker who was left ‘shocked and upset’ and filmed some of the incidents on her mobile phone.
She subsequently informed her manager about what she had seen and police were called. Orubu, from Muirhouse, Edinburgh, had previously admitted the abuse at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
She had pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and to assaulting the man on September 27.
Sentencing Orubu to four months in prison, Sheriff John Cook said the man ‘suffered distress’ during the incidents and added that he had no option but to issue a custodial sentence.
Orubu collapsed in the dock as sentence was passed.
Last month, fiscal depute Peter Motion told the court Orubu arrived at the man’s Edinburgh home with a second support worker.
Mr Motion said the carer immediately began shouting at the man, described as in his forties, and became ‘increasingly upset’ after noticing he had moved the sofa on which he was sitting.
The fiscal added: ‘The accused became angry and appeared to lift the sofa he was sitting on and on the third occasion she lifted it the man fell on to the wooden floor landing on his hands and knees.
‘He got up and again sat on the sofa but the accused lifted the sofa up again and tipped him off.’
Orubu and her colleague then took the vulnerable man shopping and on their return to his home he told the carers he ‘required to go to the bathroom’.
Mr Motion said: ‘But the accused then refused to unlock the door, which resulted in the man urinating and defecating. This caused the accused to become angry again. She advised her colleague to refuse to change him and leave him naked on the sofa.’
Orubu then left the home and the second carer remained to wash and change the man before contacting her manager.
Yesterday, defence solicitor Elaine Clancy said this had been Orubu’s first job as a carer and she had ‘lost her temper’ with the man.
She added that her client had admitted the care profession was ‘not suited’ to her.
Sheriff Cook said: ‘Your conduct involved a serious breach of trust towards a man who found it difficult to communicate properly. Vulnerable people require and deserve the protection of the courts.’
‘Vulnerable people require protection’