Brutal attack by nurse on Alzheimers patient

Dec 23 2011 by Lisa Boyle, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

A NURSE who launched a brutal attack on a 77-year-old Alzheimer’s sufferer is facing jail.

The nursing home resident was grabbed by the throat by Marjory Murray, who then kneed him in the groin and kicked him.

The 51-year-old Auchinleck woman attacked the patient after he became distressed by the noise from a TV.

Amber Wilson, 20, a care assistant at Crossgates care home in Kilmarnock, said she heard shouting and saw a colleague holding the man’s wrist as he tried to hit Murray.

Miss Wilson told Kilmarnock Sheriff court: “I got hold of his left hand and Marjory came forward and pushed him against the wall and held him by his throat.

“She didn’t need to do that because we had the situation under control.

“Marjory started shouting at him, saying, ‘Do you call yourself a man trying to hit a woman?’ The resident calmed down and the two assistants let him go.

However, Murray started shouting at him again.

Miss Wilson added: “She said that his son had asked us to take his stick away, knowing that would wind him up.

“Then she kneed him in the groin, between the legs. He was in pain and holding himself.

“She was saying more stuff to him then she kicked him again.”

Miss Wilson took the resident to his room, but he kept saying: “That girl kicked me like a horse.”

The young care assistant told the court that Murray later told her and her colleague: “That goes no further.”

Miss Wilson did not report the incident immediately because she was new in the job and said that Murray “could be quite intimidating”.

She added: “I was scared in case for some reason she got let off and I still had to work with her. She was my senior.”

Staff nurse Murray denied assault and attempting to defeat the ends of justice in September 2010, but was found guilty.

Sheriff John Rafferty told her: “I consider this to be a very serious attack against an elderly man who was in your care.

“The relatives of the residents expected you to look after the people in your charge and you did not do that.”

Sentence was deferred on Murray, of Main Street, until next month.