Man sentenced for coating care home residents’ food in bleach

Ian Bolton, 60, said he wanted to kill his fellow residents at Rosyth home

A resident at a Fife care home, who admitted spraying bleach over food in a freezer, has been sentenced.

Ian Bolton said after the incident that he had wanted to kill other residents.

Bolton, 60, suffers from mental health problems and is a patient of Lynebank Hospital, Dunfermline.

Last year he was living at the Hilton Court care home in Rosyth, where the incident took place, Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard.

Bolton was deemed unfit for trial because of his mental health state and an examination of facts hearing took place with a sheriff determining the charge was proven.

It was alleged that on December 4 last year at Hilton Court care home, Hilton Road, Bolton culpably and recklessly sprayed bleach on to food belonging to other residents within a freezer to the potential endangerment of their life.

Elizabeth Queen, 50, team manager at the care home, gave evidence at the hearing.

She recalled: “The smell of bleach was very powerful and we had to throw out all the food and clean out the freezer.

“One of the residents came over and said he could guess who did it.

“He didn’t get on with Ian and said he thought he had done it.”

When she went to Bolton’s room he quickly admitted he was responsible.

“I said to him there was an incident involving bleach and he said, ‘It’s up there’, pointing at a cupboard.

“There was a spray bottle of bleach there.

“He said he’d sprayed it over the food and I told him he could have killed someone.

“He said he realised that and wanted to kill the residents because he hated them.”

Sheriff Chris Shead previously found that the charge had been established and called for a report.

When Bolton returned to court for sentencing, Sheriff Craig McSherry imposed a six-month compulsion order, which means he will remain in hospital for treatment for that period.