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Care home boss may face prison
THE boss of a South Yorkshire care home has become the first person in the county to be convicted of ill-treating residents under new laws designed to protect vulnerable people.
Jane Lesley Harris will have to wait another fortnight before knowing if she will be jailed for her 'punishment' regime, but her career in the nursing profession is in tatters.
A jury at Doncaster Crown Court took four hours to find her guilty by majority verdicts of six counts of ill-treating three residents at the Travis Gardens care home for the severely learning disabled in Hexthorpe, Doncaster, when she was manager there during the summer of 2007. She was cleared of a seventh allegation.
During the trial, 45-year-old Harris was accused on three occasions of using the arms of residents to hit a woman who had been pulling their hair. The court heard all the residents had been distressed by the incidents and staff were shocked she should adopt such a technique.
One of the women whose arm was used as a 'weapon' was also epileptic and became very upset by what she was made to do, the court heard.
Several support workers at the care home gave evidence about what they had seen but Harris, of Priory Close, Conisbrough, denied all the allegations. She said staff were making false accusations because she had not done enough to protect them from job changes.
After the guilty verdicts the judge, Recorder Simon Jackson QC, adjourned sentencing until November 16. He said jail was possible because the "serious offences" were committed against "some of the most vulnerable people in our society".
The case was brought under the Mental Capacity Act and is only the second successful prosecution in the country since the law was introduced.
It involved a complex investigation by South Yorkshire Police and the Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
After the case Temp Det Insp Natalie Shaw said: "Harris mistreated the very people she was paid to care for."
The owners of the learning disability resource centre and respite care home at 84 and 86 Travis Gardens have asked us to point out the above story refers to another care service, not in any way connected with them.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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