Care home worker sentenced

A care home worker who abused a resident at a home in London has been sentenced today.

Jonathan Aquino, 30, was sentenced to 18 months, half custodial and half on licence, for abusing an 80 year old woman with dementia at Ash Court Care Centre, Camden, in June last year.

Matthew Trainer, CQC’s Deputy Director of Operations in London, said: “CQC welcomes the sentence handed down today. It is right that this behaviour has been handled robustly by the police and the courts. This sends a strong message that it is unacceptable to abuse an elderly person in your care. We hope it will act as a powerful deterrent to others.”

Camden Council’s safeguarding team, the police and CQC were alerted to the abuse on 23 June 2011. The family of the resident, concerned by the treatment their mother had received, had secretly filmed the abuse.

The council’s safeguarding team and the police visited the home the same day. One member of staff was arrested by police and four others suspended by the care home. CQC waited until the initial police investigation at the home was complete before inspecting it on 27 June 2011.

During that inspection, and a second inspection in August 2011, feedback given by people at the home was positive, with no residents or their families raising any concerns. CQC asked the home to make minor improvements to training and formal supervision of staff. We have recently re-inspected the home to find that the required improvements have been made. The full report will be published on our website shortly.

Inspectors were satisfied that, based on the evidence they heard and saw, the risk to people’s safety had been dealt with by the immediate removal from the home of the staff concerned. CQC did not find (nor has any other agency, resident, family member or member of care staff at the home) any new evidence of abuse that indicated a current risk to people living at the home.

“The abuse that the resident at Ash Court suffered was appalling. But abuse like this does not happen in front of management or our inspectors, so it is very difficult to detect,” added Matthew Trainer. “Once we had been alerted, we immediately contacted Camden Council and the police and worked with them to make sure residents were safe. We inspected the home as soon as the police had completed their initial work, have kept a close eye on the home since our initial inspection, and have found no evidence that the abuse has been repeated.”