A CARER is facing jail for brutally attacking vulnerable residents at a nursing home.
Helen McCracken slapped and pushed three helpless women, all in their 80s and suffering from dementia.
She dragged one old lady by the hair and pushed her on a toilet, causing the confused victim to apologise.
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McCracken, 60, was a care assistant at Three Towns Nursing Home in Stevenston, Ayrshire, but was nicknamed “Mammy” because she acted as though in charge.
Witness Karen Priestley told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court she saw McCracken strike a resident on the head because the dementia sufferer was “vocal” and had lashed out.
Miss Priestley, who was also a carer, said: “Helen would boss you around and she was related to the manager.
“I didn’t feel supported. I was upset and shocked that it happened.”
It was for this reason staff were initially reluctant to report McCracken for other cruelty and assaults, Miss Priestley said.
After attacking another resident, McCracken told shocked staff: “I just sorted her out. I slapped her.”
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Another carer, Kayleigh McLean, was working with McCracken when another elderly dementia sufferer was not co-operating as they tried to get her out of bed.
Miss McLean said: “Helen grabbed her by the hair and she basically forced her into the bathroom. There was no need to do it.
“The old lady was getting upset, saying, ‘I’m sorry’. I was shocked and had to ask myself if I had witnessed what I’d just seen.”
Other carers began to share their experiences with McCracken, said Miss McLean, adding: “I was shocked at the fact more people had seen something.”
Alison Price, a registered nurse and then assistant manager at the home, told prosecutor Stuart McMillan a care plan for residents did not include slapping residents, pulling them by the hair and pushing them on toilets.
She said McCracken was ordered to a meeting, where the allegations were put to her.
McCracken denied wrongdoing and claimed colleagues had a vendetta against her.
“I’m always on at them for sitting on their phones,” she told the meeting. “I’m clearly Mammy to them.”
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The court heard McCracken mocked one of the residents who had dementia, telling staff: “She’s acted as if she was a wee child, stamping her feet and that.”
She hit the woman on the back of the head with her hand and told her: “It wasn’t sore.”
McCracken, of Kilwinning, was found guilty of slapping one resident on the head, twice seizing another by the hair and pushing her on to a toilet and striking a third on the head with her hand in June and July 2015.
Sheriff David Hall told McCracken: “I found the three civilian witnesses to be credible and reliable and doing their best to tell the truth.”
The “very serious” nature of the charges meant he was calling for full background reports and keeping her on bail.
Sheriff Hall added: “You should understand that all options are open to me in this case.”
McCracken will be sentenced next month.
A manager at Three Towns Nursing Home declined to comment.
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