Shocking abuse by care staff is exposed by hidden camera
THREE carers who abused an elderly Alzheimer’s sufferer were caught only after her son placed a hidden camera in her bedroom.
Gladys Wright, 79, suffered a horrific campaign of violence and foul-mouthed intimidation at the hands of staff paid to protect her.
Her son James planted the camera three weeks after she moved in to a care home because he wanted to be sure her treatment was unlike the ‘horror stories’ he had heard of a growing wave of abuse.
Instead, he captured appalling scenes of his clearly distressed mother being routinely insulted as she was roughly shoved and pushed about.
He fears other patients may have also suffered at the hands of the men at the Granary Care Home, a specialist dementia centre, in Wraxall, Somerset.
Mrs Wright was left in the hands of bullying thugs Daniel Baynes, 24, Tomasz Gidaszewski, 30, and Janusz Salnikow, 25.
Shocking footage caught them calling the helpless pensioner a ‘nasty aggressive bitch’ and repeatedly telling each other to ‘**** her’.
On one occasion Baynes attempts to force Mrs Wright’s eyes open, while on another he pushes the distressed pensioner on to the bed. As he attempts to change her soiled clothes he applies his full weight on her legs.
Salnikow was recorded holding the nape of her neck before forcing her into her chair by grabbing her chin.
Mr Wright, 45, was so disturbed by the films that he immediately confronted senior staff – who told him it was against his mother’s ‘dignity’ to put the camera in her room. He then handed his recordings, on 57 DVDs, to police, and the three were arrested.
The men all pleaded guilty to abuse during a hearing at Bristol Crown Court. Ringleader Baynes, of Bath, who was also caught on camera stealing his victim’s food, was jailed for four months. Salnikow, who was recruited by the company in his native Poland, was given a two-month jail sentence suspended for two years, and Gidaszewski, of Nailsea, was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Michael Longman said: ‘This was in breach of a most basic duty of care and humanity.’
Mr Wright, whose mother died in March, called for cameras to be installed in all care homes. He said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting. It’s the opposite of care.’
Kerry Barker, prosecuting, told the court: ‘Wages were low and there were often staff shortages.’
Shaw Healthcare chief executive Jeremy Nixey said: ‘I think this was shocking care – or absence of care – by three individuals out of a staff of 150 and they have been rightly judged by the law.’