DEMENTIA patients at one of Britain's worst care homes were forced to sleep on filthy mattresses surrounded by faeces smeared on walls, a hearing was told.

Manager Ann Rigby let the Bamburgh Court Care Centre for the mentally ill fall into such a state of disrepair that inspectors branded it the worst home they had seen.

Elderly residents and dementia sufferers were allowed to wander the dimly lit halls unsupervised, while mouldy food was left to rot on dirty work surfaces and trolleys.

Horrified inspectors discovered one woman hunched in the dark, in a room stinking of urine and faeces.

Rigby, 50, faces being struck off after admitting misconduct - but declined to appear at the hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), in Central London yesterday.

The council heard how inspectors Jackie Herring and Darren Hobson visited the property in South Shields, South Tyneside, on May 27, 2004. The home was separated into the Cleadon Unit, for dementia patients, and the Marsden Unit, for the elderly.

John Hepworth, for the NMC, said: "In the Cleadon Unit there was faecal matter on the walls in the corridor. In one bedroom there was a mattress on the floor.

The resident in this room was sitting in a chair in the room, hunched over and looking very uncared for. The room was very dark and there was no light on and the door was shut. There was a smell of urine and the bed bumper in this room had ingrained faecal matter upon it.

"In total, three or four bedrooms on the Cleadon unit had no beds and only single mattresses on the floor. Placing a mattress on the floor is unacceptable.

"The residents appeared to be in an unkempt state. There were a number of residents who were wearing inadequate footwear.

Some had one shoe on and one shoe off, and some wore no footwear at all.

"There were a number of residents wandering around the quadrangle without any direction from care staff."

In the staff kitchen, officials discovered food ingrained in the lining of a refrigerator and a bowl of cornflakes had been left to rot in a cupboard.

A multi-sensory room was being used as a store room and was filled with furniture and old clothes.

Mr Hepworth said: "Mr Hobson formed the view that the condition of the home was very significantly worse than a typical home of a similar size on a poor day. He concluded that this was the worst home that he had visited"

Rigby registered as a nurse in 1979 and became general manager of the home in September 2001.

She was away on a training day during the inspection, but an improvement notice was served immediately and the manager suspended on June 4, 2004.

Rigby resigned in November that year. She has admitted six counts of failing to ensure that the home was properly maintained, failing to ensure it was clean, tidy and hygienic, and failing to provide adequate nursing care.

The panel found Rigby guilty of misconduct. It will decide today if she should be struck off.