A CARE assistant reported seeing a senior nurse kicking an Alzheimer’s sufferer “like a goalkeeper”, a court was told.

Lyndsey Crawford entered a communal lounge at Lindisfarne Nursing Home, in Whitehills Park, Chester-le-Street, as Sebastian Neequaye shouted at the “difficult”

resident, who was fidgeting with a weight chair plugged into a wall.

Miss Crawford told Durham Crown Court that Mr Neequaye then grabbed the 83-year-old man by the shoulders, from behind, before kicking him, “like a goalkeeper”

kicking a ball from his hands.

She said she was shocked but as there was an emergency with another resident it was not until later that she informed a colleague, who reported it to management.

The resident was examined and found to have a bruised buttock.

Mr Neequaye was called back from home after his shift finished, on the morning of March 9 last year, and told of the allegation.

He denied the claim, but was suspended pending an investigation, and, after police were informed, he was arrested and charged with assault causing actual bodily harm.

Mr Neequaye, 61, of Elvet Close, Wideopen, Newcastle, denies the charge.

Giving evidence, yesterday, he told the court that he shouted at the resident to stop pulling at the chair, but when his request was ignored he took hold of the man by the shoulders and “gently” moved him to one side, to prevent him potentially harming himself.

Asked by his barrister, Paul Cross: “Did you, at any stage, kick this man?”

Mr Neequaye replied: “Absolutely not, absolutely not.

“All I was doing was asking him to stop what he was doing and when he didn’t, I moved him to one side to try to ensure his safety.”

He said that he would not risk an unblemished record after 35 years as a registered mental nurse by resorting to such an action.

Mr Neequaye said he also had arthritis and would have been unable to raise his foot to such an extent.

He said he was baffled why Miss Crawford would make such an allegation.

Mr Neequaye also denied telling the nurse taking over from him the following morning that the resident in question had been, “a complete s***e”, claiming he would not use such unprofessional language.

The trial continues.