Care worker ill-treated vulnerable woman

10:39am Tuesday 9th September 2008

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A JUDGE has questioned why a woman with violence convictions was allowed to become manager of a care home - where she then bullied and ill-treated a vulnerable young woman resident.

Tanya Paterson, 34, had revealed her criminal convictions honestly when she applied for the job at Hunters Moon residential home for young people with learning difficulties at Yatton Keynell, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Yet the owners, Holmleigh Care Homes, still appointed her to run the home after the Commission for Social Care Inspection approved her as suitable.

Paterson went on to ill treat a 21-year-old woman with an intellectual age of between five and eight by bullying, shouting and swearing at her, putting her outside in the rain and pushing her about in a hallway.

Paterson, a mum-of-two of Maunsell Way, Wroughton, Swindon, had denied ill-treating the woman but was convicted of the Mental Health Act offence after a two-week trial at Swindon Crown Court.

Appearing before the trial judge, Mark Horton, at Gloucester Crown Court to be sentenced she wept in the dock as he told her that her behaviour was due to 'anger and lack of skill' and that a jail sentence was inevitable.

The judge imposed a six months jail term but suspended it for two years. And he said he hoped the process by which she was allowed to do the job would be examined to prevent future abuse of vulnerable people in care.

"You had previous convictions which showed you had trouble controlling your behaviour and a potential to be violent," said the judge.

"I was surprised, given that that was on your record, that you had been placed in this position of responsibility over people who would test your temperament so severely.

"On the face of it, it seems to have been an unwise decision and it may well be that someone ought to review those who appointed you to that position - because quite clearly on the evidence I have heard and the information that has been provided to me that question was wrongly decided.

"I would like those who permitted you to have this employment to look very carefully at the systems that led them to decide you were a fit person, given what they knew about you."

The court heard at the end of Paterson's trial that she had a 1992 conviction for assault causing actual bodily harm and threatening behaviour.

In 2002 she accepted a police caution for threatening behaviour and in 2003 she was convicted of obtaining by deception.

Judge Horton said she had openly disclosed her convictions to the care home company but her appointment had nevertheless been approved after consideration by the Social Care Inspectorate.

The jury heard during the trial - at which a male defendant also accused of ill treating the woman was acquitted - that the victim was prevented from going into the dining room and was placed in a seated restraint without permission.

She was put outside through the french windows into the rain for five minutes and was then taken to a stairway hall where she was pushed back into a sitting position every time she tried to get up.

The woman had suffered some physical injuries but these could not have been caused by Paterson, the court accepted.

Judge Horton said: "By the time she behaved the way she did in the stairwell she had lost all reason. Her manner in taking this particular vulnerable patient into the hallway demonstrated she had completely lost her temper."

Defence barrister Chris Smythe said Paterson had loved her job and worked long hours, well beyond her duty, in her efforts to make it a homely place for the six residents.

He said the offence happened during a difficult period for her and she had lost control but not by design or with any intent to harm the young woman.

Paterson had been under great stress since the offence and the thought she would never be able to work in the caring profession again had a 'significant impact upon her,' he said.

"She is on medication - effectively she has had a full breakdown following the effective ending of her employment."

It was notable, he said, that when she gave evidence at her trial she had made no attempt to justify the way she put the woman out in the rain and had used the term 'ill treatment' herself.

Passing sentence Judge Horton said: "It is a test of every civilised society to view how it treats and protects its old, its young, its vulnerable - those like the victim in this case who have no voice, who cannot complain, who are in 24-hour care and need to be protected.

"I am satisfied that through anger and lack of skill you put this vulnerable patient into the garden on her own and that was because you had lost any ability to deal with her particular needs. You had lost your temper and felt the need to treat her as one would treat a naughty child.

"If it had ended there it would have shown your complete incapacity to deal with this kind of work and this kind of vulnerable patient.

"But it didn't - because while you were in the stairway you manhandled her and pushed her back onto the stairs.

"You then took her fairly forcibly into another room. You shouted and swore at her."