11 care workers handed jail terms for abuse at Winterbourne View

Report from Avon and Somerset Constabulary...

Today, (Friday October 26), 11 care workers from a South Gloucestershire hospital, who admitted a string of charges of neglect and abusing patients at Winterbourne View, have been sentenced to more than seven years in prison at Bristol Crown Court.

This week, following a 17 month police investigation the court saw footage of the systematic abuse of vulnerable patients carried out by staff employed at the Hambrook centre.

Six of the 11 offenders, who all pleaded guilty were handed sentences to be served immediately, while five others received suspended sentences and unpaid community work.

Wayne Rogers, 32, admitted nine counts of ill-treating patients, and was jailed for two years, while Alison Dove and Graham Doyle were handed 20 months behind after they both pleaded guilty to seven charges of abuse.

Nurses Kelvin Fore, 33, and Sookalingun Appoo, 58, were told to serve six months in prison for their part in the abuse on five patients at the facility and Holly Draper, 23, and from Mangotsfield was handed 12.

Their five other colleagues who were also charged were sentenced to between four and six months in jail, suspended for two years.

Summing up Judge Neil Ford QC said there was a "culture of cruelty" at the care home as well as degrading and inhumane treatment of the patients in the staffs care.

He went on to congratulate the investigative team who carried out this long and complex enquiry with great sensitivity to the victims and their families.

After sentencing Detective Chief Superintendent Louisa Rolfe, Head of CID with Avon and Somerset Police said: "Today, in sentencing these people, Judge Ford has recognised the inhumanity of their behaviour.

Ann Reddrop, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's South West Complex Casework Unit, said: "Every member of society has the right to live free from intimidation and fear, but the offending that took place at Winterbourne View undermined that right in an appalling and systematically brutal way. People who should have been able to trust their carers had that trust cruelly and repeatedly abused.

The other care workers handed suspended sentences were, Michael Ezenagu, 29, from Shepherds Bush, west London; Jason Gardiner, 44, of Hartcliffe; Daniel Brake, 27, of Downend; Charlotte Justine Cotterell, 21, from Yate; Neil Ferguson, 27, of Emerson Green; and Wayne Rogers, 31, of Kingswood. They all admit ill-treating patients in their care.