A Scottish carer who threatened to ‘drown the b*tch’ while bathing a cancer patient has been struck off.
Annamaria McPadden, of Tollcross, was struck off after her shocking behaviour against 63-year-old Jeanette Griffin was put before the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).
According to a colleague, McPadden sprayed deodorant into the elderly woman’s face, sprayed water into her eyes, regularly swore in front of her, called her ‘a selfish old woman’ and said she hoped ‘the ropes snap with her in them’ as she hoisted her into a bath.
All of the horrific incidents took place on July 11, 2017, at the BUPA-run Golfhill Care Home in Dennistoun, Glasgow. While pointing at Griffin’s face, McPadden reportedly told her: ‘Shut the f*ck up or I’ll give you something to scream about.’
Griffin passed away in December 2018, and was said to struggle with mobility and speech, often requiring assistance with everyday tasks like bathing, eating and dressing, as the Evening Times reports.
As heard at the SSSC ruling, McPadden reportedly showed absolutely no signs of remorse or apology for her actions against the vulnerable woman.
During the hearing, the SSSC said:
You have had opportunities throughout the SSSC investigation to explain your actions and provide evidence of remorse and/or remediation. You have chosen not to express any remorse or insight and the Panel therefore view your failure to show any insight, regret or apology as an aggravating factor.
The Panel considered that the circumstances of your behaviour were an aggravating factor in that your actions occurred in work and were deliberately directed at a vulnerable service user. The Panel accept that your actions relate to one 30 minute period and so could on one view be described as isolated.
The Panel had serious concerns however about the fact that you chose to target a vulnerable service user in the shower, on the bed and in the corridor when she should have been safe from abuse. The Panel viewed the abuse as sustained and a serious abuse of trust and as such viewed this as an aggravating factor.
McPadden was also brought before Glasgow Sheriff Court on January 8 earlier this year, where she was convicted of behaving in an abusive manner that ‘was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm’.
Following the conviction, Sheriff Mary McCrory ordered her to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work as a result.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.