A team leader at a Dover care home has been convicted of ill-treating elderly and vulnerable residents.

Elaine Graham, 57, of Monins Road, Dover was working at Alexander House when police were alerted to a number of incidents.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor told a jury at Canterbury Crown Court: “The information had been provided by what is colloquially known as a ‘whistle-blower’ an employee at the home who witnessed the abuse.”

He said the fellow worker who reported her concerns was Joanne Armstrong who quit her job because of the ill-treatment she had witnessed between September 2015 and April last year.

The prosecutor said carer Ms Armstrong was on her own one evening when she heard screaming and went to investigate.

She saw an 80-year-old patient, who suffers from advance dementia, shouting: “get off” before spitting.

Graham then grabbed the patient’s face with one hand round her cheeks and then threatened to put a towel over her if she didn’t stop spitting.

Miss Armstrong explained that she told Graham to leave the room, however, instead of leaving she remained in the room and proceeded to stick her tongue out.

Mr Taylor added: “This act, as trivial as might seem, caused the resident obvious distress.”

Ms Armstrong reported the incident to managers but she quit when she believed that nothing was done about it.

On an earlier occasion another care worker reported Graham putting a flannel into the mouth of the patient on three occasions, who was again spitting, and threatened to gag her.

Graham was also convicted of banging the head of a patient against a wall while getting her into bed.

"This is a very sad case for many reasons, involving the ill-treatment of elderly residents at a home where you were employed as a senior carer" - Judge Recorder James Osborne

She denied all of the offences claiming she was the victim of a witch-hunt.

She was convicted on five counts of ill-treatment of a patient and was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work for the community and pay £750 court costs.

The judge, Recorder James Osborne told her: “This is a very sad case for many reasons, involving the ill-treatment of elderly residents at a home where you were employed as a senior carer.

“It’s a great shame you have lost your good character and the job you cherished.

But those who care for people like this occupy a position of responsibility and the work can be rewarding but it is very demanding and requires skill and dedication.

“You must have known you had behaved inappropriately. But there are no concerns that you had been behaving like this over a long period of time.”