Care worker sentenced for ill-treating patients
A former Gloucestershire care worker has been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence for ill-treating patients he was looking after.
Brent Morgan, 46, of Eastern Avenue, Mitcheldean, physically abused three patients while working at Woodlands Care Home in Longhope.
Morgan will also have to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.
He was found guilty of six charges of ill-treating the patients after a trial at Gloucester Crown Court.
The court heard that in one incident he stood on the feet of an 18-year-old woman with severe learning difficulties and made her scream.
In another he forced his fingers into the mouth of a 47-year-old man with a severe behavioural disorder and made it bleed.
The offences all took place between January and September 2011.
'Thoughtless and heartless'
The abuse came to light after colleagues at the care home contacted the Care Quality Commission.
Morgan claimed the allegations were false as the people who complained were jealous of him and his wife, who was the house manager at the time.
The Recorder John Trevaskis told Morgan his victims had needed and deserved his full support and that he had betrayed their trust.
He said Morgan had subjected them to unjustified physical abuse and that his behaviour was "thoughtless and heartless".
But the Recorder suspended Morgan's sentence noting that his actions were not typical.
Several of his colleagues and friends had also written to the court.
One of them said they had been shocked and bewildered at reports of what Morgan had done and that it was difficult to believe as he was a man of good moral character.
Det Con Dean Morse said the residents at the home were "very vulnerable" and Morgan had "taken away their dignity and respect".
Aspirations, the company that took over the running of the Woodlands Care home, declined to comment.