An army veteran who started working in a specialist hospital unit to "give something back" has denied deliberately antagonising vulnerable patients.
Darren Lawton accepted he made a number of crass comments that were caught on covert recordings filmed by an undercover reporter but denied his actions impacted on the patients.
The 47-year-old told jurors he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the time he spent in the armed forces while serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sierra Leone.
He said he decided to take on the care worker role to support vulnerable people and give something back to the community.
Read next: Cannabis growers locked up after £500,000 farm was discovered in town centre
Rebecca Brown, representing the defendant, asked her client if he had ever ill-treated any of the patients in the unit.
Lawton replied: “I don’t fell like I did anything wrong.”
Quizzing him about some of the things he said about patients, she asked: “Were they a reflection of how you were treating people in your care?” He simply replied: “No.”
Jurors watched several clips of the footage recorded by the Panorama team where the defendant could be heard speaking about patients including one where he was talking about pressing the ‘man button’ – a known trigger for one of the vulnerable patients who didn’t like to be looked after by male carers.
He could be heard saying ‘If you press the man button her room fills up with males and f****** hates it’.
Miss Brown asked him if he deliberately ‘tortured the life of patients’, he replied: “No.”
Lawton is one of nine former members of staff from Whorlton Hall who were charged with ill-treating patients following the Panorama undercover investigation in 2019.
Filmed over several weeks, the reporter captured the defendants allegedly tormenting one distressed patient who was seen to scream in anguish and hit herself as staff encouraged her or threatened to remove all female staff.
Olivia Davies worked as a care assistant at the unit near Barnard Castle while recording the actions of staff in January and February 2019.
Under cross examination, Niall Mellor told the court how he was "playing the goat" when making a number of "absurd" comments about patients in an attempt to impress the undercover reporter, Olivia Davies.
He said: “I wanted to be the centre of attention, it was the wrong way to impress her, and I know that was wrong.”
The accused are:
• John Sanderson, 25, of Cambridge Avenue, Willington, faces two charges of care worker ill-treatment or wilful neglect of an individual on February 2 and 25, 2019.
• Darren Mark Lawton, 47, of Miners Crescent, Darlington, by virtue of being a care worker, allegedly ill-treated or wilfully neglected a patient on January 27, 2019, and faces the same charge relating to a different patient on February 2.
• Niall Mellor, 26, of Lingmell Dene, Coundon, Bishop Auckland, is accused of the ill-treatment or wilful neglect of a patient on two occasions on January 20 and 24, 2019.
• Sarah Banner, 33, from Faulkner Road, Newton Aycliffe, stands accused of three charges of ill-treatment or neglect of a female in her care on January 24 and of a male patient the following day.
• Matthew Banner, 43, of the same Newton Aycliffe address, faced six charges all relating to the same patient at Whorlton Hall on separate occasions between January 6 and February 22.
• Ryan Fuller, 27, from of Deerbolt Bank, Barnard Castle, faced ten charges of ill-treatment or wilful neglect against six different patients January 19 and February 2.
Read more:
- Convicted rapist jailed for failing to register TikTok and Snapchat aliases
- Darlington drug dealer jailed after being arrested four times in four months
- Knife wound in Bishop Auckland stabbing didn't need to prove fatal, jury told
If you want to read more stories, why not subscribe to your Northern Echo for as little as £1.25 a week. Click here
• Sabah Mahmood, 27, of Woodland Crescent, Kelloe, is accused of, by virtue of being a care worker, ill-treating or wilfully neglecting a male patient on January 4, 2019.
• Peter Bennett, 53, of Redworth Road, Billingham, faced three charges in total relating to two female patients, on January 6 and February 24.
• Karen McGhee, 54, from Wildair Close, Darlington, faced a total of four charges relating to a male and a female patient which were all said to have happened in January 2019.
The defendants all deny the charges and the trial continues.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article