A NURSE who assaulted an 80-year-old Alzheimer's disease patient with a mop at a North-East nursing home was kicked out of the profession yesterday.

Peter Summerson, 37, used the mop to pin down the pensioner after discovering the man had wet himself.

Summerson initially denied attacking the defenceless patient while on night duty at Greenfields home, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in February 2000.

But, just before his trial at Teesside Crown Court, Summerson pleaded guilty to common assault.

He escaped a prison sentence when a judge ordered him to perform 150 hours of community sentence.

Summerson, of Beech Field, Newton Aycliffe, failed to attend a hearing of the UK Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visitors (UKCC) yesterday and was found guilty of misconduct in his absence.

Striking him off, committee chairwoman Alice McEvoy said: "He endangered the health and well-being of the patient."

The UKCC, in London, heard that the assault left the victim with red marks on his chest, head and back.

Detective Constable Walter Hurst, of Durham Police, said Summerson was arrested three weeks after the attack, while working at the Beacon Hill Home, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

At first he denied assaulting the pensioner, who as well as suffering from Alzheimer's, wore a catheter and was unsteady on his feet.

Three witnesses heard raised voices and saw Summerson drag the man from the office and put him in a chair in the foyer.

Det Con Hurst said: "Mr Summerson placed the mop across the chest of the patient and this was in order to restrain the patient."

Police charged Summerson with common assault and ill-treatment of a patient, but the second charge was ordered to lie on file.

Ordering his expulsion from the profession, Miss McEvoy said: "The committee agreed that the respondent be removed from the register, in that he was convicted of an assault on a frail, elderly gentleman with no mitigating circumstances being put forward."