A carer drank eight cans of Stella and smoked cannabis before she ‘just snapped’ and beat up a paralysed 89-year-old grandmother.
Pavla Dolanska was a live-in carer for the elderly Doris Radford but has now been jailed after her ‘shocking and sickening’ attack on her.
The 36-year-old attacked her on April 17, 2021 ‘in a haze of depression and anxiety’ after being left at breaking point during the Covid pandemic.
But because of her drinking and drug taking she didn’t remember most of the evening, a court heard.
Alongside that, despite initially confessing to police that she had ‘snapped’ in later interviews with officers, she denied responsibility for the attack but later pled guilty in court.
Dolanska had worked as Mrs Radford’s only overnight live-in carer throughout the pandemic at her home in Horfield, Bristol.
Mrs Radford was paralysed following a spinal cord injury and had suffered a stroke. She was bed-ridden, and had advanced dementia and was only capable of raising her hand to scratch her nose, BristolLive reported.
But the strain of caring for her grew too much for the carer. On the evening of the brutal attack, Dolanska twice visited local shops where she bought eight cans of Stella Artois and smoked cannabis as well.
At a brief hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court last month, she pleaded guilty to inflicting GBH on Mrs Rashford.
Around 1am, she texted Kelly Cutler, one of the shift carers who looked after Mrs Radford throughout the day, and said she ‘needed help’.
Ehsanul Oarith, prosecuting said: "The defendant told her she had beaten up Mrs Radford, so she went to see and what she said she saw she described as shocking and sickening.
"She was in bed with bruises and lacerations and in visible pain. The defendant herself looked like she was regretting her actions, and Ms Cutler called the police."
When officers arrived at the scene the mum confessed to them and told police she had ‘snapped’ and attacked Mrs Radford.
The elderly woman was left with horrific injuries including shocking bruises across one side of her face, lacerations around her eyes and nose, and blood all over her pillow.
Fluid even gathered around her brain as a result of a blunt force trauma injury.
Mrs Radford would tragically never return home again - she was first taken to hospital and treated for her injuries.
She was kept there for other health reasons before being discharged to a care home. But there she was isolated due to Covid.
The 89-year-old stopped eating and drinking - something she had done before - and died 17 days after the attack on May 5.
Dolanska, a carer from Czechia, was in the UK to earn money and help pay off her father’s debts and had a nine-year-old son, who she shared custody of with her ex-partner.
Defending, Mandla Ndlovu told Judge Moira Macmillan that Dolanska had been under incredible stress at the time of the attack. "Miss Dolanska was hit by a cavalcade of catastrophes which left her exhausted, stressed, anxious, distressed and depressed," he said.
He added: "Pavla Dolanska worked for two years with Mrs Radford. Caring for her was not without its challenges. Initially, she would work one week on and one week off, then the pandemic struck, slowly her shift pattern changed and began to increase to two weeks on with two weeks off to recover. Then it was four weeks on with two weeks off, and then it was eight weeks on with a sliver of time to recuperate.
"She did try to approach her employer but there were no bodies to relieve her."
But he said the most acute issue was “the screaming at all hours of the day and night”. Mrs Radford would often scream the same word on loop leading to Dolanska struggling to sleep - something she turned to drink and drugs to self-medicate.
Judge Macmillian initially sentenced Dolanska to two and a half years then reduced it to one year and eight months because of her early guilty plea - the earliest she will be released is in ten months.
