A CARER looking after patients with dementia dragged an elderly woman across her bathroom floor with her bottom exposed in an "undignified assault", a court heard.

Maimoona Maqsood, 26, of Winston Terrace in Lidget Green, Bradford, was found guilty of three counts of being a care worker who ill-treated or wilfully neglected an individual, at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

This related to three elderly patients at Crossley House Care Home, in Thornton Road, on September 21, 2021.

Maqsood – who had been at the home for two years and was working as a care assistant at the time – was on a night shift alongside an inexperienced colleague in the same role when she “abused her position and trust”, the court heard.

The colleague – who said she had only been working at the care home for a month after shadowing staff for two weeks - was a key witness in proceedings and the investigation came about when she reported Maqsood via a whistleblowing procedure.

The court heard that Maqsood dragged a care user – who suffered from dementia - across her bathroom floor with her pants and underwear down, after the staff member became “agitated” when struggling to put a continence pad on the woman.

The key witness said: “Maimoona decided we had to get the woman off the toilet and then Maimoona grabbed the woman under the arms and placed her onto the bathroom floor.

“I didn’t say anything, I was shocked, I didn’t know what to do, I was shocked how she treated the resident.

“She didn’t speak to her politely, she just picked her up off the toilet and placed her on the floor.

“There was no warning, I’d never seen anyone put a resident on the floor like that before.”

The resident was screaming and telling Maqsood to get off her, while the defendant shouted back at her about three times, the court heard.

The key witness told the court Maqsood then said: “There’s nothing up with her, she’s just a pure b***h”.

She added: “I just looked at her in disgust.”

The court heard the resident then asked where her deceased husband was and Maqsood replied, “he’s dead”.

This made the elderly woman even more upset and the key witness said Maqsood became more erratic.

Maqsood threw the pad at her colleague and asked her to “put the pad under her bottom now”.

The key witness said: “I did it otherwise Maimoona was going to drag the woman along the floor.”

Maqsood asked her colleague to get the resident’s ankles and she continued to drag her across the bathroom floor to the door and they eventually got her into the bed.

The key witness said: “She was very upset, she started to cry.

“I just said sorry to the woman.

“I put her blanket over her.”

Eleanor Guildford, for the prosecution, said it was an “undignified assault”.

She added: “The woman should never have been forcibly moved from the toilet when she didn’t comply with the pad.”

Maqsood denies dragging the lady across the floor and told the court she supported her to get down to the ground as she was being aggressive, moving around and flailing her arms and the care assistant was concerned she may have a seizure, due to a medical condition.

She said: “My focus was on the woman, the way she was lashing out, I didn’t want to be in that situation where her breathing was getting heavier and her seizures were kicking in.”

Maqsood claimed the elderly woman’s knickers and pad were on at this point.

She said her colleague was stood in the shower space of the toilet, in the corner, not helping.

Maqsood told the court she confronted her colleague after they closed the door of the room and questioned why she had not helped and said “that’s not on”.

Maqsood said she told her she would raise concerns at a Complaints and Concerns Meeting the following day.

But the prosecution denies this ever happened.

That same evening and shift, Maqsood also slapped a resident’s hand three times, with enough force that her colleague could hear it, because the elderly woman was picking her nose and later called another resident they were helping into bed a “fat cow”.

Maqsood denied both of these instances.

The key witness reported Maqsood two days later, the next time she was back in for a shift.

The defence claimed she only did this because of Maqsood’s threats to raise concerns at the meeting – which the key witness did not attend.

But evidence was presented that the colleague texted her mum to raise concerns after the first incident.

Maqsood will be sentenced on July 31.