A HOSPITAL nurse who assaulted a vulnerable, elderly patient avoided being sent to jail yesterday.

Auxiliary nurse Barbara Carty, was found guilty of assaulting a frail 73-year-old schizophrenic patient last month.

Magistrates heard how the 46-year-old mother kneed James Morgan in the buttocks and the region of his groin on June 25 last year, while he was a patient in her care.

She also nipped his buttocks so hard that her nails cut him, roughly manhandled him by his pyjama top and shouted abuse at him when he would not get up off the bathroom floor in Ward 44 at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Yesterday, magistrates handed her a four-month prison sentence suspended for a year and ordered her to pay £250 costs.

Derek Walton, prosecuting, explained how Mr Morgan, who has since died, complained that Carty was being too rough with him: "She replied saying 'you're a filthy man', she was shouting at him to get up."

Carty then dug her nails into Mr Morgan's buttocks before beginning to knee him.

Mr Walton said: "During this time Mrs Carty was getting redder and redder, she was shaking with anger."

As a result of the incident Carty has been sacked from her job and will not work in health care again.

In mitigation, Joanne Gatens, said Carty, of Holmlands Road, Darlington, was of previous good character and feared prison.

"My client is finding it difficult to come to terms with the allegation and the fact she has been convicted," he said.

"I would suggest she has been punished throughout these proceedings."

Chairman of the bench, sitting at Darlington Magistrates' Court, David Urwin, said: "You were in a position of trust and you were dealing with a very vulnerable patient. We accept it was an isolated incident, but we cannot allow it to go unchallenged."

He said the magistrates would not be doing their duty if Carty did not receive a custodial sentence. But he said it would be suspended due to the mental health problems she now suffers as a result of the case.