ALMONDBURY NURSE CONVICTED OF ILL-TREATING OR NEGLECTING PENSIONER WITH DEMENTIA
A registered mental health nurse will be sentenced next month after he was convicted by a jury on a charge of ill-treating or neglecting a pensioner in a care home.Drew Griffiths, 45 of Ashes Lane, Almondbury, was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court yesterday of ill treating or neglecting Ada Gill on July 19, 2012 – a person who lacked mental capacity.
He was cleared on a similar earlier charge on the same pensioner in April, 2012 and was remanded on bail for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
The jury heard Mrs Gill was 93 and a resident in Southfield Court Care Home in Almondbury where Griffiths had worked since 2004.
Nicholas Barker, prosecuting, said the home provided residential care for elderly residents, particularly those who were elderly mentally infirm.
Mrs Gill suffered from uncomplicated senile dementia, was hard of hearing and struggled to walk.
Her son Doug who visited her daily described her as vulnerable.
Witness Paula Stansfield, who would work with the pensioner on a one-to-one basis, said she was walking past the lounge and saw Griffiths standing in front of the pensioner shouting directly into her ear in an aggressive way telling her to sit down.
Griffiths told the jury on that evening in July he was giving out medication.
Mrs Gill was sitting in a wheelchair and told him she wanted to go to the toilet and to get ready for bed.
He said he told her he was on his own at the time and would pull the nurse’s cord to get another person there to attend to her.
He denied shouting or losing his temper with her saying he had only raised his voice slightly to get her attention and denied leaving her in the state she was found.
“Were you being deliberately unkind to her,” asked his defence barrister Robin Frieze.
“No,” he replied.
“Did you want to hurt her,” he was asked.
“No, I didn’t go into the caring profession of nursing to hurt anybody.” Nicholas Barker put it to Griffiths that he knew she needed the toilet.
“You simply left Ada in that condition and went about the other jobs you had to do.” Griffiths denied that suggestion.
After the verdicts the court heard he had one previous conviction for battery before Huddersfield Magistrates Court in June 2008 when he was given a community order and supervision.
Mr Justice Lindblom told Griffiths he would be sentenced next month after a report was prepared on him on the one charge on which he was convicted.
