Care home OAP tormented by worker

A care assistant flicked a pensioner's ear, tilted his wheelchair and tickled his nose with a feather while he stayed at a West Midland care home.

Emma Cleet subjected Bernard Roberts to a year-long period of torment at Woodhaven residential home in Walsall Wood which also included slapping his thigh and flicking his nose. Cleet, of Ansty Drive, Cannock, admitted a charge of ill-treating Mr Roberts between November 2007 and 2008 at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

She said she was playing games to cheer him up.

Judge Jonathan Gosling adjourned the case until December 2 for reports although he ruled out an immediate prison term.

The family of 80-year-old Mr Roberts, who died in July after he contracted pneumonia, today branded the actions of Cleet as "sickening and outrageous."

Mr Roberts, who suffered from alzheimers and was known as Bunny, previously lived at Goodwood Drive, Streetly. He had completed his National Service in Egypt in his teens before working for Dunlop Tyres. He spent his latter days at a Rushall nursing home.

Daughter Debbie-Lee Richardson, aged 50, said: "It is absolutely sickening and outrageous, this shouldn't be happening to anyone in care and should never happen to anyone in care again.

"Hopefully she will have a lot of guilt and I am sure she will. We feel insulted by her excuses, there are no excuses at all."

Sister Mandy Gilliland, 48, added: "There has been a lot of support from the rest of the staff at Woodhaven."

In a statement, 22-year-old Cleet insisted she did not intend to hurt father-of-three Mr Roberts.