Carer who threw dementia sufferer, 88, around like a ‘rag doll’ avoids jail

A carer hurled an 88-year-old dementia sufferer and threatened to ‘flog him’ just days before his death, a court heard.

CCTV footage captured Bilikesu Olagunju, 42, throwing John Attard like a ‘rag doll’ at the pensioner’s home in Bayley, Kent.

She stripped the pensioner and dragged him by the scruff of his collar to his armchair during the 45-minute visit on Christmas Eve 2022.

In the video, Olagunju tells him: ‘Maybe I will beat you up. I will flog you. I will take you to the GP to get injections. I will call the police on you.’

The care worker also poured marmalade into John’s coffee, knowing he was diabetic.

John was discovered unresponsive with blood on his face the next day, a court heard. He died in the hospital 10 days later.

His son, Chris, whose hidden camera recorded the incident, told MailOnline that while a post-mortem could not prove Olagunju was responsible, he believed her treatment of him had contributed to his sudden decline.

Woolwich Crown Court heard that Olagunju had caused John, her first assignment as a carer in the UK, ‘great distress’.

Prosecutor James Benson said John had been ‘manhandled’ and that Olagunju had ‘played on her victim’s vulnerability’ through ‘rough handling, verbal aggression, and degrading treatment’.

She ignored advice from her employer on the phone, telling her not to touch the dementia sufferer and continued pulling him up.

Olagunju was given a six-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 50 hours’ unpaid work.

Chris said his father, who had five children, 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, was ‘still enjoying what life he had left’ and described him as ‘kind-hearted’ and ‘generous’.

He added that having to repeatedly watch the CCTV footage of John being abused had taken a mental toll on him.

Judge Charlotte Welsh, sentencing, questioned why Olagunju had been given an elderly dementia sufferer as her first patient and said the carer lacked ‘sufficient training’.

She accepted that there was no ‘malicious intent’ on the part of the carer and that Olagunju had shown ‘genuine remorse’.

The judge said: ‘Your actions are evident of your failure to treat Mr Attard as a person deserving of as much dignity and respect as the rest of us.’

Olagunju’s defence barrister said she was ‘ashamed’ at her conduct and had suffered ‘mental anguish’ as a result of the incident.

While echoing the judge’s point that Olagunju had not been given sufficient training to deal with the situation in which she found herself, he added that the defendant ‘had failed in her duty as a carer’.

Olagunju’s employer, Unique Personnel, was served a warning notice several months after John’s death.

An inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found the service to have ‘inadequate’ leadership as well as unsafe care practices, although its branches were rated as ‘good’.

The report, published in May 2023, also identified inadequate staff training, failure to carry out risk assessments and poor handling of complaints, including from patients’ relatives.

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