February 18, 2010
Care Home Worker Prosecuted
A 19 year old woman has been prosecuted for ill treating an elderly resident living at the care home where she was employed.
Nafeesa Jamal, from Selbourne Road, Luton was sentenced last week by Luton Magistrates Court having pleaded guilty to the ill treatment or neglect of a person under the Mental Capacity Act of 2005.
It is the first time in Bedfordshire, and one of only a handful of cases in the country, where a prosecution has been brought under this Act. It makes it a specific crime to ill treat or neglect a person deemed to have no mental capacity.
Jamal was sentenced on February 11 to do 100 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £85. More importantly, an application will now be sent to the vetting and barring register to ask for her never to be allowed to work with vulnerable people again.
The offences relate to mobile phone videos taken by Jamal of her teasing and verbally abusing an 81 year old female resident of a care home in Dunstable. The woman had dementia and can be seen trying to stop Jamal as she had the phone pushed in her face. The victim has since died of natural causes which had nothing to do with these incidents.
The care home manager contacted police in the summer last year after a former member of staff confided suspicions about Jamal’s behaviour.
Officers from the Vulnerable Adult Investigation Unit arrested her and sent her mobile phone away for forensic examination. Seven clips were subsequently found on the phone with some showing clear evidence of the abuse.
“The care home manager did absolutely the right thing in coming to us with her suspicions – it would have been easy to ignore what had happened. We work very closely with such responsible carers so they know we’ll do everything we can to help them continue to look after their residents well,” said PC Dan Arnold, who investigated the case.
“Unfortunately many people don’t know what to do if they think their family member is being ill treated. Our unit has specially trained officers who know how to help get the best possible evidence where someone may have difficulty communicating,” he said.
The Unit has also been involved in a number of cases where elderly or disabled people relying on carers at their own homes have had money stolen from them. In these cases, family members came to the police for help and officers were able to employ techniques such as hidden cameras and bank account checks to bring the offenders to justice.
“The vast majority of carers are just that – caring and doing a good job for the person they are looking after. People like Nafeesa Jamal, who treated this lady with appalling disrespect and caused her distress, should not be allowed to get away with such behaviour,” said PC Arnold.
Anyone who thinks a family member is being abused in anyway should always contact their local police station, who will find the most appropriate officers to help.
