Nurse guilty of abusing dementia patients

A nurse faces being struck off the professional register after being convicted yesterday of abusing dementia patients in her care.

Beverley Thompson, 47, had denied five counts of ill-treating or wilfully neglecting elderly residents in the Livingston Care Home, West Lothian.

She was convicted of committing four of the offences while she worked at the home in September and October last year after three care assistants gave what a sheriff called “credible and compelling” evidence against her.

She was acquitted of pinching a resident by the nose and pulling her head back after the sheriff ruled there was insufficient corroboration to convict her.

Returning guilty verdicts in the four linked charges, Sheriff Martin Edington said he was satisfied the principle of mutual corroboration meant there was sufficient evidence to convict her.

He called for background reports and told Thompson that he would sentence her on 13 December.