In court:
Care worker threw tea over man with dementia

A DISGRACED former care worker who threw a cup of tea over an elderly man with dementia and gave him vinegar to drink has been jailed.

Nicola Bacchus had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of ill-treating or neglecting a person who lacks capacity between March and June 2011.

She was working at the time at the Seddlescombe Park residential home on Dunchurch Road where she was said to be ‘the manager’s deputy'.

The court heard Bacchus was accused of throwing cold water and a cup of tea over the vulnerable 86-year-old resident, who was suffering from dementia.

She was also said to have given him a bottle of vinegar to drink; adulterated his food with excessive amounts of garlic paste, onion and salt; and kicked his legs and used force against him.

The 28-year-old of Wharf Place, Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, who entered her not guilty pleas almost a year ago, failed to turn up for a hearing in October last year.

A warrant was issued for her arrest after the judge also heard her solicitors had ‘come off the record’ because of her failure to cooperate with them to prepare her case.

Following her arrest, Bacchus, represented by new solicitors, maintained her not guilty pleas at a pre-trial hearing - claiming none of the incidents had happened.

But after her trial started when she was transferred to Birmingham Crown Court, she changed her pleas to guilty on all three charges.

Jailing her for ten months, Judge John Maxwell told Bacchus that, with the exception of the period she served for her failure to surrender to her bail, the time she had spent in custody since she was arrested will count towards her sentence.

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