A CARE worker who bit and kicked a vulnerable dementia patient has been warned she faces a possible prison sentence.

Sandra Lund, 54, lost her temper with the 74 year old woman at North Yorkshire County Council’s Limestone View Extra Care facility in Settle and bit one of her hands, drawing blood and causing her to scream in pain, heard magistrates.

She then failed to correctly log the incident on June 4 last year, reporting it verbally only to her line manager, Carrie Macauley, who was also her daughter.

The court was told staff at the facility, run by Housing and Care 21, had no dementia training and worked long hours and that the woman was a difficult patient with advanced dementia and with a record of violence towards staff.

Lund, of Pendle View, Main Street, Long Preston, claimed she had acted in self-defence after the woman had squeezed her hand painfully and refused to let it go.

She said she had lost her balance and her leg had caught the other woman’s, but denied biting her, claiming her nail had accidentally scratched her.

But Harrogate Magistrates Court heard her co-care worker, Elena Snepsta had said it was not an accident and that Lund had kicked and deliberately bitten down on the woman’s hand.

Ms Snepsta, and another care worker, Laura Rigby, both described hearing Lund talk to the woman as if she was a child and Mrs Rigby said how she had once ‘yanked’ the woman up off a bed.

Summing up at the Harrogate court, prosecutor, Alison Whiteley, accused Lund of giving varying and vague accounts.

Lund, she said, had changed her mind about what hand the woman had hold of, and when asked by police could not remember the full name of her daughter.

Chris McGrogan, for Lund, said his client had consistently denied biting the woman but accepted she had scratched her accidentally with a finger nail. He said the victim of the assault had a record of violence towards staff, who not only worked long, stressful hours, but who had received no dementia training.

Mr McGrogan further reminded magistrates that Ms Snepsta had left court in the middle of his cross examination, pointing out he had been unable to question her on all her evidence.

But finding Lund guilty of assault by beating, magistrates told her they had found Ms Snepsta’s telling of events to be consistent and corroborated by other witnesses, while they had found her to be inconsistent and vague, even changing her evidence while testifying. They said she had failed to make a proper record of the incident as had her line manager and did not accept paperwork had not been completed because of forgetfulness or lack of time.

She will be sentenced at Harrogate Magistrates Court on May 30.

A spokesman North Yorkshire County Council said: “The council is conducting its own safeguarding investigation into this case which it takes extremely seriously.

“The County Council understands that as soon as this incident was reported to the care provider, the member of staff was suspended and a full investigation involving all appropriate agencies was carried out.

“The County Council expects the very highest standards of care of older and vulnerable people at all its Extra Care facilities around the county.”