A NURSE has denied a string of "particularly severe" abuse allegations including slapping an elderly man, mistreating others and threatening fellow staff at a care home.
Badarmaine Garnett, 67, of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, who faces being struck off the nursing register, rejected charges of misconduct, alleged to have happened in 2008, at a hearing in Edinburgh yesterday.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing was told the claims involved nine elderly and vulnerable people at the Sunnybank Care Home in Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire.
The hearing also heard Ms Garnett planned to raise questions or counter claims with three witnesses who signed statements against her, but could not as they had declined to attend.
Her agent, Jonathan Guy, said their statements should as a result not be accepted.
The nurse is accused of regularly stripping an elderly man in front of other residents, one of whom was encouraged to make fun of him.
Cassandra Scarborough, for the NMC, said it was an "unhappy situation" that all three witnesses, the then home manager Lorraine Van Der Heijdt, and care assistants Cindy Fretwell and Nicola Emslie, had refused to attend.
She said emotional and medical reasons lay behind the refusals.
Ms Scarborough said a statement from one of the care assistants corroborated the other's.
She said: "It is my strong submission that there would be a substantial injustice should these statements not be written in the record. The allegations are particularly severe and involve a number of vulnerable residents."
Mr Guy said Ms Garnett was appalled by the allegations and does not plan to return to nursing, where she had a "previously unblemished" career.
