‘Callous’ care worker who was caught on CCTV slapping, elbowing and pushing dementia-stricken care home residents is jailed for nine months
- Sharlene Bosita, 30 was filmed physically abusing three care home residents
- CCTV captured the repeated abuse said to have happened almost 40 times
A ‘callous’ care worker has been jailed for nine months after she was captured on CCTV physically abusing three care home residents with dementia almost 40 times.
Sharlene Bosita was filmed as she tried to make it appear that she was about to elbow residents in Ashgate House Nursing home, slapping them with gloves, and pulling and pushing them, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
The 30-year-old’s victims were all in their 80s and had dementia. The repeated abuse left them ‘confused, frail and vulnerable’ the CPS said.
Bosita, of Boythorpe, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was caught when colleagues checked CCTV footage over an unrelated matter and saw video of her pushing a resident into a chair.
Eddie Leonard, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court that Bosita was seen ‘mimicking’ and ‘laughing’ at her victims and throwing water at one of them on ‘five different occasions’.
She also slapped another in the face ‘four times’ with a glove, lifted residents nightgowns to expose them, and was seen lifting one ‘by the legs’.
Sharlene Bosita was filmed as she tried to make it appear that she was about to elbow residents in the care home, slapping them with gloves, and pulling and pushing them
Ms Leonard said 37 separate incidents were recorded, and noted the use of gloves and throwing water was ‘something of a theme’.
Bosita’s defence barrister said his client had a nursing degree and that her offending was down to a ‘loss of control which became a pattern’.
Bosita pleaded guilty to three counts of ill-treatment or neglect by a care worker in February. She was sentenced to nine months in prison at Derby Crown Court on Monday.
Recorder Sunil Khanna told Bosita: ‘These were mean and cruel offences and I’m afraid only immediate custody can properly reflect the seriousness.
‘They were all extremely vulnerable and were unable to speak for themselves.
‘You believed you were being firm but being firm does not allow you to hit someone in the face with a glove, or throw water and laugh at them. That’s not being firm, that’s you being abusive – you are in complete denial of your actions.
‘I accept that things are difficult in care homes but it’s no excuse of a loss of control – you were in a position of great trust.’
The 30-year-old was sentenced to nine months in prison at Derby Crown Court (pictured) on Monday
Graham Heathcote, senior crown prosecutor at the CPS East Midlands, said: ‘Sharlene Bosita behaved with callous cruelty towards three people she was employed to look after and protect.
‘While individually the level of violence Bosita used was relatively minor, over a prolonged period there can be no doubt that her actions will have caused significant emotional and physical harm to her victims.
‘Given their vulnerability, it was important to establish the extent of Bosita’s criminal behaviour, for which she has now been held to account.’
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