Staff unable to stop care home resident gouging woman’s eye

♦ A care home resident gouged out another woman’s eye, a court heard, with staff unable to stop the attack because they did not have the entry code for the room.

The home in Cheltenham, Glos, has since been closed as a direct result of the incident in March, Gloucester Crown Court was told. Victoria Dicapita, 27, launched the attack on Laura Murray in the Alstone House care home after earlier assaulting two members of staff, said prosecutor Catherine Flynn. She committed the offences after becoming upset over a Facebook argument with a former boyfriend, it was said. Dicapita was jailed for nine and a half years after she admitted wounding Ms Murray with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. She also admitted assaults on two staff. Ms Flynn said that Dicapita has had difficulties since an accident at the age of six left her brain-damaged. She had several convictions for assault in 2006 and one last year.

Joe Maloney, defending, said: “She will always have to be in full time care of one sort of another. But she is damaged through no fault of her own.”