Trial of nurse accused of assault postponed

A NURSE accused of beating and torturing an 84-year-old cancer patient was not asked to plead at her second court appearance yesterday.

Ncediswa Mkenkcele, 40, a former caregiver at the Lily Kirchmann Complex, appeared briefly before magistrate Leon Kemp in the East London Magistrate’s Court charged with assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Mkenkcele was arrested in Duncan Village after Cambridge police viewed a video that allegedly showed her choking and punching East London cancer sufferer and pensioner Hope Shepherd.

Shepherd is then tied for three hours to her wheelchair, which was tied to a her bed.

Another part of a video allegedly shows Mkenkcele taking a deodorant can and bashing it against Shepherd’s head until she bleeds, and then spraying the deodorant into a breathing hole in her throat – all this as she screamed out in pain.

The assaults on February 3 and 23 were captured on a spy camera set up in a television set in the room by Shepherd’s daughter, Bernice Robertson.

After witnessing the brutal assault against her mother, she approached the management of the home for the frail before laying a complaint with the Cambridge police.

She then removed her mother from the Lily Kirchmann Complex, where she had been paying R14 000 a month for her mother to be looked after.

Mkenkcele resigned from her job at the home before disciplinary steps could be instituted against her.

She is due back in court on June 5.

Prosecutor Thulani Solani said police would be able to finalise their investigation.

Police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said the investigating officer would wait for the case docket to be returned from court to see what the state wanted to be probed further.

Outside court, a neatly dressed man and woman attempted to shield Mkenkcele from a press photographer.

The man, walking next to Mkenkcele, organised a taxi to pick her up near the entrance of the court.