A CARE home worker told a court that a 90-year-old dementia sufferer who fell to her death from a window was “agitated” and had previously vanished from her bedroom in the middle of the night.

Jean Ellerton, who said she had worked at the Parkview residential home in Seaton Carew, for seven years, described how Norah Elliott twice got out of the back of the building.

Mrs Ellerton said the pensioner was agitated on her arrival at the care home and she took it upon herself to make regular checks on her.

She said: “If there are any concerns about a resident we take it upon ourselves to be a bit more vigilant.”

She disagreed with prosecutor James Kemp that it was “common for residents to go walkabout” and try and leave the home, although she said it did happen.

The owner of the home, Matt Matharu, has denied two counts of failing to ensure people were not exposed to risk and is on trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Much of the case has centred on window restraints at the residential home which the prosecution say at the time of Mrs Elliott’s death, in October 2012, were either missing or easily broken.

In his evidence, Mr Matharu, of Elwick Road, Hartlepool, said the window which the pensioner fell from did have a restrictor in the form of a chain and no issues had previously been raised following checks by the local council.

The trial continues.