THE former owner and manager of a care home has told a jury that the work was stressful but the residents “were my life”.

Helen Burridge, who is accused of ill-treating four elderly women, said the residents at Riddlesden Rest Home, Carr Lane in Riddlesden, were important to her and she saw them more than she saw her own mother and family.

“It was important they got the care I would give my own mother,” she told the jury.

Burridge, who denies all the allegations, said: ”It’s a stressful job. The residents can be challenging. We had a number of residents with dementia and a number with physical disabilities.”

Burridge said she also had to deal with staff arguments and visitors coming into the home.

“How did you feel towards the residents?” asked her barrister Oliver Jarvis.

“They were my life. I’ve been there for a long time.”

Burridge, 62, of Greenfield Road, Holmfirth, said she had been working in the care sector since 1981 and became the owner of the care home in the early 1980s.

The alleged offences are said to have occurred between late 2019 and Burridge said she had suspected pneumonia at the beginning of December so she wasn’t very well and didn’t do as many shifts as normal.

She rejected a suggestion that the home may have short-staffed and dismissed a claim that one resident had been locked in her room.

Burridge, who at the time lived next door to the care home, said the rooms had fire doors which could be locked from the outside, but the residents could use the handle to open the door from the inside and get out.

Mr Jarvis asked detailed questions relating to the four complainants and Burridge denied a series of allegations that had been made against her.

She conceded that she was quite strict about paperwork at the home and accepted that some people might have found her abrupt.

Burridge denied knocking one elderly woman to the floor and explained that if the resident was falling she would catch her, rest on her knee and lower her to the floor before seeking assistance from another member of staff.

“Did you ever slap any resident?” asked Mr Jarvis.

“I’ve never slapped any resident no,” replied Burridge.

She denied ever giving a woman excessive alcohol or doing anything that would have caused bruising to her.

Burridge rejected allegations that she had tried to force another woman resident to eat her food and that she had “taunted” another resident about her dead husband.

At the start of her trial earlier this month prosecutor Ashleigh Metcalfe outlined details of the allegations against Burridge and her former senior care assistant Amy Dickinson.

Dickinson, 24, of Fairfax Street, Silsden, has also denied similar charges relating to her care of residents at the home.

Back in December 2019, police arrested the pair at the premises after an employee reported her concerns about what was happening at the 10-bedroom care home.

Miss Metcalfe told the jury that the allegations included using derogatory language towards residents, failing to administer prescribed medication, locking an 84-year-old woman in her room, and throwing a pillow or an inflatable exercise ball at the head of another vulnerable woman.

“Both defendants we say provided care which fell far below that which is expected for a care worker,” alleged Miss Metcalfe.

The trial continues.