A nurse has been found guilty of assaulting vulnerable residents at two Highland care homes.
John Andrew Charters, known as Andrew, slapped a female patient’s bare bottom and asked: “If I be your Sampson, you can be my Delilah?”
He also pulled a 78-year-old man from his bed against his will, leaving him sore and bruised.
Charters, 61, had denied the assault charges when he stood trial at Inverness Sheriff Court
In evidence led by fiscal depute David Morton, the court heard how Charters had targeted his female victim at the Grandview care home in Grantown on Spey on February 1 2014.
A witness told the court the woman was lying naked during a bed bath when Charters, a qualified nurse, came to administer a suppository.
But after doing so, the witness said, Charter’s told the woman: “If I be your Samson, you can be my Delilah” and “slapped her on the bare bottom.”
The resident was left in tears, “distressed” and “really upset” by the incident.
Then, in December of 2022, Charters was working at the Seaforth care home in Maryburgh when he assaulted his second victim, a 78-year-old man who said he did not want to get up and have a shower at 5am.
In a statement to the police made following the incident, the victim, said: “Andrew leaned over my bed where I was still lying and grabbed me by the wrist, very tightly gripped, and pulled me across the bed.
Victim pleaded with nurse
”I was pleading with him, saying no, I shouted at him to let go.”
He added: “He pulled me right up, it was sore.”
The attack was again witnessed by another member of staff who gave evidence at the trial.
Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Charters told the court he had been following a care plan when he tried to get the pensioner out of bed.
“He said he didn’t want to get up,” Charters said, before conceding: “I decided to get him up anyway.”
Charters claimed he used an approved open-palm technique to support the patient to an upright position and insisted there was “no grip” involved.
But the court also saw images of bruising to the elderly patient’s arm, taken by his visiting son after the incident.
Speaking about the bottom-slapping incident, Charters said: “We were having a bit of banter and I tapped her on the bottom lightly.
He said he did not consider his actions had been appropriate and said: “It is something I regret deeply.
‘It was stupid’ admits accused
He added: “It was stupid. It was not intended to do any harm to the lady. It was in jest and I accept that it was entirely inappropriate.”
Finding Charters guilty of two charges of assault, Sheriff David Harvie said: “This case involves two elderly and vulnerable individuals who sadly are no longer with us.”
Speaking about the first victim he said: “She was an elderly woman in a very vulnerable position, having just been administered medication, naked at the time, by someone who was charged with responsibility.
“That senior person struck her on the backside – that is an assault.”
Speaking about the male victim, the sheriff highlighted how the care plan that Charters had referenced in his evidence had been designed to help the resident feel “safe and secure” in the care home setting.
He told Charters, of Aultbea: “You were in a position of significant responsibility on both occasions.”
He found Charter’s guilty of two charges of assault.
Sentencing was deferred to next month for the production of a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty assessment.
Family welcomes verdict
Speaking after the verdict, the son of the male victim told the Press and Journal: “After a long and difficult time for the family and friends of my father – and the staff of Seaforth House – we are just pleased that the court has seen through his lies and that hopefully no other vulnerable individual will be in his hands in future.”
The trial had heard that Charters had already been subject to proceedings by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, whose website confirms that he was made subject to an 18-month interim suspension order in June of last year.
A spokesman for the Seaforth care home said: “The care home immediately informed all appropriate external agencies and carried out their own internal HR procedures.
“We can confirm that Mr Charters is no longer an employee of the company.”
The Grandview care home is no longer in operation.