Dementia sufferer Bridie, 92, deserved dignity

THESE shocking images of a frightened elderly woman being abused, taunted and slapped helped nail a cruel NHS nurse.

They were captured on a hidden video camera installed by the worried children of 92-year-old Bridie Rees and show her ordeal at the hands of Faderera Bello, 54.

Bello worked for Homerton NHS Foundation Trust at the Mary Seacole Nursing Home in Hoxton, East London. She was jailed for four months this year after evidence from the video camera in Bridie’s room led to her arrest.

The nurse can be heard in footage angrily ordering frail Bridie: “Shut up, shut up your mouth.”

She is seen standing over Bridie cleaning a wound on her arm – which her family claim was caused by the rough way in which she was handled.

During the 20-second clip, Bridie moans and warns Bello that she will tell her children. But the nurse retorts: “Your children can’t do nothing. They are rubbish. Put your arm down.”

In another shameful scene, Bridie lies in her bed and cries: “How dare you, how dare you,” as Bello pokes and prods at her.

Angry with the old woman for defying her, Bello pushes her arm away and shouts, “Put your hand down.”

In another two-minute video clip, Bridie tells the nurse to “get off of me” while Bello pulls at her pyjamas.

Helpless

The nurse eventually pushes her across the bed and snaps: “You silly woman, I can’t do anything for you.”

Later Bello urges Bridie to, “Lift your head up, lift your head up,” before shoving her and walking away. She then returns and tells Bridie she is “such a nasty woman, such a nasty person.”

As Bridie moans in pain while her bed is roughly made, Bello tells her there have been complaints, saying: “They have mentioned, ‘I think you have been abusing that woman’.”

In other recordings Bello berates Bridie for telling her children how she is being treated. She says: “There is still rubbish from the mouth.

“Why only you [complaining]? All the time. Only you. Abusing, abusing. We are doing this, we are doing that. Why would we be doing that to an old woman like you?” As Bridie starts to moan back, Bello slaps her hand, telling her: “Put your hand down.”

The footage also appears to show Bello poking Bridie in the face.

Bridie’s daughter Veronica Davis noticed bruising on her mother’s arm two weeks after she moved into the Mary Seacole home, which was named after a famous Crimean War nurse.

Veronica said: “In my heart I knew Mum was being abused but I felt helpless to prove it. She had clear marks where someone’s finger’s had bruised her from grabbing. But I knew she wasn’t prone to bruising.”

Bridie, a grandmother to 30 children and great-grandmother to 56 went to the care home in August last year.

The much-loved family matriarch, herself a former geriatric nurse, was known for her fun personality.

Her daughter-in-law Irene Rees said: “She always had a smile on her face. I used to call her the Queen. She was the head of the family.”

But two strokes and a series of heart attacks left her bed-ridden and she suf-