Shari Childs, 38, was locked up for nine months after a trial at Norwich Crown Court (pictured, outside court)
A care home worker who screamed at terrified elderly dementia sufferers like a ‘lion eating a zebra’ has been jailed.
Shari Childs, 38, was locked up for nine months after she brutally bullied and abused ‘incredibly vulnerable’ pensioners in her care at Hillcrest Care Home in Norwich.
Childs was convicted of of seven counts of willfully neglecting or ill-treating a person lack mental capacity, between December 1, 2014 and April 30, 2015, at Norwich Crown Court on Monday.
Jailing her, Judge Stephen Holt said ‘a message must be sent out’ that abuse of vulnerable people wouldn’t be met with leniency.
‘Out of control’ Childs, from Norwich, subjected frightened residents to ‘low grade bullying’, her four-day trial heard.
She was suspended on April 30, 2015, the day that colleague Yanic Anacoura made an official complaint about after he was ‘buddied up’ to work with her.
Mr Anacoura branded Childs a ‘bully’ who repeatedly undermined residents she was supposed to be looking after, her trial heard.
He said: ‘It was hard to watch. It was not care at all.’
Shocked Mr Anacoura said she was ‘aggressive and forceful’ and like a ‘lion eating a zebra’ as she yelled and shouted at traumatised elderly patients.
He said he saw Childs shout at a stunned resident with incontinence problems humiliating them.
Yesterday Judge Holt saluted the whistleblower for his bravery.
‘Out of control’ Childs, from Norwich, subjected frightened residents to ‘low grade bullying’, at Hillcrest (pictured) her four-day trial heard
‘Yanic Anacoura is one who comes out of this sorry affair with much credit,’ said Judge Holt.
‘He had the courage to blow the whistle.’
But despite her conviction Childs still does not accept that she mistreated residents in her care, the court heard.
Jonathan Goodman, defending, said she had previously had an ‘unblemished history in the care industry’.
Mr Goodman told the court: ‘This is a lady very unlikely to trouble the courts again.
‘She was out of control at a time in her life when her husband had been sacked. She is not going to pose a risk in the future because her career is finished.’
Judge Holt told Childs she had set an ‘appalling example’ to her colleagues and left her victims ‘terrified’
Judge Holt told Childs she had set an ‘appalling example’ to her colleagues and left her victims ‘terrified’.
‘These residents were all elderly with dementia problems.
‘Old people with that disease are incredibly vulnerable to abuse.
‘Sadly something happened in your life which changed you.
‘Your behaviour changed towards some of the most vulnerable residents suffering from the horrors of dementia.
‘Friends and relatives of such vulnerable old people must have confidence they are going to be well looked after,’ he said.
‘Older persons with these kind of needs deserve to be looked after with patience and decency.
‘People must understand.
‘If they abuse in a cruel way elderly, very vulnerable people, custody is almost inevitable.’