CRUEL CARERS FACING JAIL
Pair threw stones at dementia sufferers They laughed and filmed abuse on phones Judge warns them they are facing jail
TWO care workers mocked dementia sufferers and threw stones at them.
Student nurse Abana Arshad, 23, and Amy Greenhalgh, 24, have now been told they face jail.
They hurled gravel at victims as they begged them to stop and would laugh as they filmed their distress on mobile phones.
Up to seven elderly residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease were targeted by the pair behind the back of unsuspecting colleagues while working a shift at a specialist elderly mentally infirm unit at Laburnum Court in Salford. None of the victims was able to say who ill-treated them due to their confused condition.
Arshad and Greenhalgh were eventually found out when one was seen loading her pockets with gravel from the driveway. It emerged one resident had rolled-up plastic gloves thrown at her. Stones were also found on the floors of the rooms of the victims.
When the pair realised they were going to be discovered, they tried to pin the blame on some of the residents and smeared one innocent senior colleague as a ‘crackhead.’ They also warned each other to delete any incriminating pictures on the phones.
In a Facebook exchange Greenhalgh said: ‘’Someone’s reported us about stones being thrown’.’ Arshad responded: “Delete it all off your phone to be on the safe side.’’
Arshad, who has now given up her university nursing course, denied the charges while Greenhalgh pleaded guilty. In police interview Arshad said: “Amy was laughing and a resident was swearing at her and I made the unwise decision to laugh due to the resident swearing at Amy.” Greenhalgh told police: “I had known Abana to throw paper and stuff at residents before.”
In court, she said: “I did nothing to stop it and I weren’t really thinking at the time. I was just being stupid. I knew it’s wrong and shouldn’t have done it. Everything’s true that I have owned up to. We shouldn’t have done it.’’
The pair will be sentenced next month and were granted bail.
District Judge James Hatton said: “Both these defendants lied in interview and blamed each other, and sought to shift responsibility onto other residents. They clearly knew what they were doing was wrong and amounted to ill-treatment.
“Both were present, both were involved and both laughed. They are as guilty as one another and they stand convicted and at risk of an immediate custodial sentence.”