A carer drew whiskers on the face of a woman with the mental age of four and offered her dog biscuits, a court has heard. Debra Ralph, 54, was looking after the woman at Agricola House in Bury. Ralph was struck off and arrested within days of the incidents.
Judge Tina Landale said: "It's hard to think of a more vulnerable victim than a person in her position." The court heard Ralph had also put the woman on her knee and riven her backward and forwards in the car park.
Prosecuting, Sophie Kenny, told the court that colleagues told her this kind of behaviour constituted abuse. Three days later she was arrested by police for the ill treatment of the woman as a care worker and pleaded guilty to the offence in court.
Defending Ralph, Rachel Shenton, told the court her behaviour was not "malicious" and she "didn't want to harm anyone. She conceded that it was "inappropriate and reckless behaviour on her part" but she had a "desire to entertain" the resident.
Ralph had been working as a carer for four years. Ms Shenton said: "It was misguided and inappropriate. She was trying to entertain her and wasn't trying to conceal what she did.
"She (Ralph) is deeply and truly sorry."
Sentencing Ralph to a 12-week suspended prison sentence, Judge Landale, said: "You wilfully abused her. You have been rightly dismissed from employment. After the first incident in the car park when your colleagues immediately intervened and brought to your attention that it was wrong to be treating her in that way, you went on to ill-treat her again in a short space of time. These were actions which amounted to ill-treatment.
"It's serious because as you know it involves a breach of trust between the patient and the carer and between the families of those loved ones who expect and require good care to provide proper treatment.
"I take into account that this was out of character and you didn't intend to cause harm. But this was reckless behaviour for which you have apologised and lost your job."
Ralph, of Ellesmere Road, Bolton, was handed a 12-week sentence suspended for 18 months. She was also ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work with 20 days of rehabilitation.
