A nurse who assaulted vulnerable residents at two Highland care homes has been spared jail at Inverness Sheriff Court.
John Andrew Charters, known as Andrew, slapped a female patient’s bare bottom and pulled a 78-year-old man from his bed against his will.
Charters, 61, had denied the assault charges when he stood trial at Inverness Sheriff Court, but was found guilty on both counts.
During the trial, the court heard how Charters had targeted his female victim at the Grandview care home in Grantown on Spey on February 1 2014 as he administered a suppository.
In evidence led by fiscal depute David Morton, a witness told the court the woman was lying naked during a bed bath when qualified nurse Charters came to attend to her.
Bare bottom slap
But after doing so Charters told the woman: “If I be your Samson, you can be my Delilah” and slapped her on the bare bottom.
His victim was left in tears and was “distressed” and “really upset” by the incident.
Then, in December of 2022, Charters was working at the Seaforth care home in Maryburgh where he assaulted a second, male, victim.
The court heard the 78-year-old said he did not want to get up and have a shower at 5am.
He told police: “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.
”I was pleading with him, saying no, I shouted at him to let go.”
He added: “He pulled me right up, it was sore.”
During the trial, Charters said he had been following a care plan when he tried to get his victim out of bed
In his evidence, he stated: “He said he didn’t want to get up. 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 said “no grip” was involved.
But the court was shown images of bruising on the elderly patient’s arm, taken by his visiting son after the incident.
‘A bit of banter’
About the bottom-slapping incident, Charters said: “We were having a bit of banter and I tapped her on the bottom lightly.”
He told the court: “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.”
Patients need ‘dignity and respect’
At the sentencing hearing solicitor Duncan Henderson, for Charters, said: “When families put their loved ones into these establishments they expect a high standard of care and for them to be treated with dignity and respect.
“The court is going to take a dim view of these matters and that is understood by my client.”
Mr Henderson said Charters had previously served in the US Navy, from which he was honourably discharged, and had spent 23 years in nursing – a career he believed had now likely come to an end as a result of his conviction.
Sheriff Harvie told Charters: “I can’t improve on Mr Henderson’s words in relation to the expectation the families have when they place their loved ones in the care of professionals and in particular the dignity and respect with which they expect their loved ones to be treated.”
The sheriff said he was taking Charters’ lack of convictions and previous pro-social public work into account in deciding the sentence.
As a direct alternative to a custodial sentence he placed Charters on a community payback order requiring him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within six months.
Convicted nurse suspended
The website of the Nursing and Midwifery Council confirms that Charters was made subject to an 18-month interim suspension order in June of last year.
Speaking after the trial, 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.