Care Workers At Private Hospital Abuse Disabled Boy

Isolated incident? Really? After Winterbourne View, how can we believe that?

Two despicable carers were secretly filmed slapping and humiliating a brain damaged patient at a £3,000-a-week private hospital.

Rita Page, 68, and Lynette Crook, 33, smacked the young man’s legs and swore at him as they changed his bedding.

Page told him: “You won’t beat us, b******. There’s this very fine line between abuse and neglect. Don’t you dare be sick on me, boy. Don’t you dare, you dirty, scummy boy.”

Crook added: “Better not think about being sick on me, lad. I don’t do sick so stop it, scummy lad.”

The cruel healthcare assistants have now pleaded guilty to various offences, and have been warned they are likely to be jailed. The footage was filmed in 2012 by the patient’s family who hid cameras in his room.

They hatched the plan after becoming worried about the care at the hospital, which specialises in treating brain injuries. Page and Crook were suspended from duty at the Priory Highbank Centre in Bury, Greater Manchester, and arrested after the footage was handed to police.

At Bolton crown court, Page admitted two charges relating to using abusive language and slapping the man’s leg in a struggle when she put a pillow between his legs. Crook admitted three charges relating to jabbing the patient in the torso and head with a pen while he was asleep, using abusive language, and slapping his leg while taking his blood pressure.

Page, of Bury, and Crook, of nearby Ramsbottom, have been bailed until sentencing in May. Seven other charges will lie on file. The victim, who suffered brain damage after an accident when he was a youngster, cannot be named for legal reasons.

After the court hearing, his uncle said: “We had been very concerned about the treatment our relative was getting and we made that many complaints that two family members got banned from the premises.”

Malcolm Bower-Brown, regional director for the Care Quality Commission, described the abuse as “dreadful”. But he said the Commission’s most recent inspection, last month, found the hospital to be meeting national standards.

A Priory Highbank spokesman said: “We deeply regret the unacceptable actions of these two members of staff both of whom had over 10 years’ service and previously unblemished records.”

He said the women were both sacked for gross misconduct, adding that the abuse was “an isolated incident”.