A care assistant who sparked an international police hunt when she fled the country after filming a 99-year-old woman lying on the floor at a nursing home pleading for help has been spared an immediate jail sentence.

Hannah Parveen, 22, of Fairbank Road, Heaton, Bradford, was arrested on July 20 at Leeds-Bradford Airport when she returned from Pakistan.

Her disappearance featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme after she jumped bail in June, 2009. Yesterday, she was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, at Bradford Crown Court.

She pleaded guilty to the wilful neglect of a person lacking mental capacity on December 12, 2008.

Mobile phone footage filmed by Parveen was played in the courtroom. It showed Edith Askham lying on the floor in her nightdress pleading for help after she had fallen out of bed at The Dales in Woodhall Road, Thornbury, Bradford.

Mrs Askham, who has since died, was disabled and suffered from advanced dementia.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said three other care workers at the home were jailed in December last year for the abuse of Mrs Askham and an elderly man at the home.

Parveen’s barrister, Kate Bisset, said her client had shown “exceptional levels of remorse.”

“She got caught up in the moment and shame does not even come close to how she feels for this incident,” Miss Bisset said.

The judge, Recorder Toby Wynn, said the abuse was “a callous and sickening act.”