Nursing home carer repeatedly struck naked dementia patient, court told

A NURSING home carer repeatedly struck a naked dementia patient and told him "you will be next to see the angels," a jury heard yesterday.

Ludmila Sitkowska slapped 76-year-old Walter Pitts hard on his bare thigh when she was cleaning and dressing him, it is alleged.

Sitkowska, 54, is also accused of laughing as she pinched a sore on Mr Pitts' heel and telling him: "If I kick you, you will die. Jackie died and you will be next to see the angels."

Bradford Crown Court heard that Jackie was a resident at the Staveley Birk Leas Nursing Home, Staveley Road, Nab Wood, Shipley, where Mr Pitts lived. She had died in hospital a short time earlier.

Sitkowska, known as Lucy, of St Paul's Road, Shipley, denies ill-treatment of a person who lacks capacity, on April 25 last year.

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Prosecutor Simon Haring said she was a health care assistant at the home but was immediately suspended when a colleague made the allegations against her.

Razna Ali said she was working with Sitkowska that day to wash residents, dress them and take them into the dining room.

She had been employed at the nursing home for just over two months and Sitkowska was helping her with what to do.

Miss Ali said Mr Pitts had dementia and could not stand or communicate well. He had to be lifted on a hoist and he became agitated when his incontinence pad was changed.

That morning he slapped or tapped Sitkowska's hand to try to move it away from him.

"Lucy slapped him on his thighs, on his legs. I think it was three or four times. I was really shocked by what I saw," Miss Ali told the jury.

She said the first slap was hard. Mr Pitts did not know what had happened.

"He tried kicking her but she held him down by the legs," Miss Ali said.

It was then Sitkowska made the remark about Jackie, before laughing as she pinched the sore on his foot, Miss Ali alleged.

Miss Ali said Sitkowska told her "leave it" and left the room, but she struggled and got Mr Pitts' trousers on.

She said a physiotherapist at the home saw her crying and shaking and she told her what she had just witnessed.

She then reported it to the management.

Sitkowska told the court she had no criminal convictions or cautions.

She was recruited in her native Poland by the Czajka Care Group and began working at the nursing home in 2007.

She was fully trained to NVQ level and treated the residents like members of her family.

Mr Pitts' dementia had worsened since she began caring for him and he would get agitated and aggressive, swearing and spitting.

"He has his own world in his mind and it is difficult to understand him," she told the jury.

That morning he kicked her in the face when she was changing his pad.

She told him: "We mustn't kick each other. We are dying so fast and we need to have nice memories."

Sitkowska said he had kicked her before many times. She touched his naked body to turn him to wash him but did not strike or pinch him.

She said no one had complained about her before. She believed it was malicious to remove her from her job.

"People still remember me as a good person and a friendly and professional carer," she said.

The trial continues.