A carer who was caught on a hidden camera snorting speed in the same room as a disabled man he was supposed to be looking after has been spared jail.
Thomas Harris had been the victim’s carer for a decade but when the patient’s father became suspicious of the standard of care, he installed CCTV to monitor him.
He was left appalled when Harris suddenly racked up lines of amphetamines on the kitchen table as his son lay on the floor in the living room, just metres away.
Yet Harris walked free from Newcastle Crown Court after the judge heard how he had committed the past decade to the profession.
Pictured: Carer Thomas Harris was caught on a hidden camera snorting speed while supposedly looking after a severely disabled man
In the shocking video shown in court, Harris checks nobody is looking them sniffs amphetamine with the vulnerable man just feet away, out of camera shot.
The horrified father of the disabled man watched in disbelief on a live stream after setting up covert cameras in his son’s Newcastle home due to his suspicions about the care he was receiving.
Harris had also taken the irresponsible decision to reduce the victim’s medication while on a trip to Center Parcs, in the Lake District, leading to a worsening of his mental state.
Pictured: Thomas Harris leaving North Shields Magistrates’ Court following an earlier hearing
The Newcastle Chronicle reported how a court heard the victim has Fragile X and autism and the mental capacity of a five-year-old, requiring round the clock care.
Harris, 56, had been one of the victim’s carers for a decade, was considered almost one of the family and has left the man’s parents feeling betrayed by his neglect of their loved one.
After seeing him walk free from Newcastle Crown Court on a suspended sentence, the man’s mother said she has been off work sick since the revelation of what had been happening.
She said: ‘Thomas was a really good carer and was almost part of our family. It’s an abuse of our trust and a betrayal.
‘We thought we were doing the best for our son so he would be safe. It’s horrific.’
The court heard the 31-year-old victim’s condition gives rise to learning disabilities and behavioural problems and he is an ‘extremely vulnerable person’.
He has suffers from anxiety and agitation, has an aversion to changes in his routine and had been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs which doctors said he needed to take in the morning and at night.
In February, Harris and another carer took him to Center Parcs and while they were away Harris reduced his medication, although the other carer was still giving him it on occasions.
It was after they returned that Harris was caught on camera taking illicit drugs.
Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said: ‘Due to issues from previous care companies, his father had installed covert CCTV to monitor the standard of care he received.
‘(The father) monitored the CCTV live feed from his desk at work and at this time he saw his son and carers return from Center Parcs.
‘(The victim) lay on the living room floor using his ipad and the defendant was present in the living room and the other carer was upstairs.
‘The behaviour of the defendant attracted the father’s attention. He spread out a newspaper and placed a place mat on top of it and placed something against his nose. He was snorting drugs.’
The father called the police and him and officers went to the house to confront Harris.
He was searched and tablets he should have given the victim were found in his jeans and he claimed he had been refusing to take them.
He was arrested and on the way to the police station, he said: ‘(The victim) doesn’t need the meds, he is better off without them so I have not been giving them to him’.
A further search found more of the anti-psychotic tablets and a bag of white powder which turned out to be amphetamine, which he said he sometimes took to deal with stress.
Harris, of Whickham, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to an offence of having the care of a person lacking mental capacity, neglecting their care, and possessing amphetamine.
He was given four months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months with 80 hours of unpaid work.