'Neglectful' Bromsgrove care workers spared jail

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THREE care workers from a Bromsgrove residential home found guilty of neglecting an 85-year-old dementia sufferer have been spared jail.

Gail Broadway, 37, Glen Walsh, 23, and Maxine Turbill, 46, were all handed suspended sentences and barred from working with children or vulnerable people again at Worcester Crown Court today (Tuesday).

A jury convicted the three former carers after a seven-day trial last month for failing in their duty to look after Thomas Milroy.

Mr Milroy, who was suffering with advanced Alzheimer's disease should have been checked every two hours. However, on the morning of February 26 last year, he was found lying in the corner of his room at Breme Care Home, Sidemoor, freezing, barely conscious, suffering from hypothermia with his clothes soiled in his own urine and faeces. He hadn't been visited all night by carers and was reported as having 'slept well' in the handover documents.

Mr Milroy a grandad and great-gandad, died in January this year although it is not thought his death was related to the charges.

Broadway, of Lyttleton Avenue, and Walsh, of Granary Road, Stoke Heath were both given four-month jail terms which have been suspended for 12 months. The pair will also do 125 hours of unpaid community service and will also pay £500 each towards the jury costs which totalled more than £4,000.

Broadway was the lead carer on the night and she supervised and instructed Walsh to put Mr Milroy to bed at 7.30pm because he was tired and his behaviour was 'unpredictable', the court heard.

Judge Robert Juckes QC passing sentence said Walsh failed to make sure Mr Milroy undressed and in bed, which he was unable to do by himself. He added Walsh had lied about what happened that evening and 'fell away from duty in a dramatic way'.

Judge Juckes said Broadway had failed to make any personal checks herself or instructed anyone else to. Although she told Maxine Turbill about the difficulties they had had in putting Mr Milroy to bed, she had not written anything down as she was supposed to.

Turbill, of Granary Road, Stoke Heath, also failed to check on Mr Milroy and wrote that he 'slept well' in the handover record to fellow carer Jane Sutton, who discovered the man on the floor and alerted the police.

Judge Juckes conceded there was a degree of uncertainty and grey area as to whether Turbill was actually responsible for Mr Milroy's room. She was, consequently, given a two-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, was ordered to pay £500 in the next year towards court costs but she was deemed, because of health problems, unfit to carry out community service.

Judges Juckes concluded each former worker was partly responsible for the wilful neglect of Mr Milroy which ultimately 'put his life at risk'.

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