Edinburgh care worker '˜ordered woman, 101, to eat biscuits from floor like a dog'

A CARE home worker tried to force a 101-year-old dementia sufferer to eat biscuits from the floor 'like a dog' after the elderly woman had accidentally spilled them, a court has heard.

Braid Hills Nursing Centre. Picture: TSPL

Poorooshotum Avi Seedany, 26, is said to have attempted to humiliate the pensioner by forcing her to the ground and eat the spilled biscuits at a care home earlier this year.

Seeedany, known as Avi, is also alleged to have attacked an elderly male resident by twisting his nipples and pulling his ears.

It is also claimed Seedany, from Edinburgh, slapped a third resident to the head and pushed her so she fell and banged her head off a chair at the capital’s Braid Hills Care Home earlier this year.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the care worker had been at the home for five years without incident but he had carried out the catalogue of abuse at the home’s Swanson Unit over an eight-week period.

Care worker Shirelle Cairns told the court on Tuesday that she worked shifts with Seedany on many occasions and that the abuse she witnessed had left her in tears.

Miss Cairns said she saw the 101-year-old female resident being abused by Seedany when the woman spilled a plate of biscuits on her bedroom floor.

She said: “The resident had pushed biscuits off a table and Avi wanted her to eat the biscuits off the floor.

“Avi said ‘if you want to act like a dog then you can eat like a dog’.

“Her dementia was really bad so she didn’t really know what’s was going on.”

Miss Cairns said she was so shocked the incident left her in tears.

She added: “I called him a few names - I think I called him a horrible, vile pig. I then had to go into the toilet to have a wee greet to myself.

“I’d had enough and couldn’t take anymore. I said a few things to him and then left the room.”

Miss Cairns, 25, told the court of another occasion when a 74-year-old male resident was lying in bed when she saw Seedany assault the man by twisting his nipples.

She said: “The abuse happened every time I was on shift with Avi. The resident had no top on and Avi twisted his nipples with his hands.

“[On another occasion] we were raising the resident’s bed and as we did it Avi just pulled him up by the ears to make him higher.”

The care worker added on a third occasion she saw Seedany hurt the pensioner by leaning on a wound after the man had recently had a hip replacement operation.

She said: “Avi pulled a fist and leaned on the resident’s wound until his feet were off the ground. Avid just didn’t have the patience for a resident like that.”

Miss Cairns also told the court Seedany placed his hands over an 81-year-old female resident’s mouth for around 20 seconds to stop her from screaming out during a separate incident.

She said: “He placed his hand over her mouth when she was screaming for help - she shouts every day, it is just something she does.

“She then started coughing and there was vomit on his gloves - the resident’s lips were blue.”

Seedany is also facing a charge of pushing an 87-year-old female resident into a room and turning the lights off and closing the door after she had caused a small disturbance during dinner serving at the care home.

The trial in front of Sheriff Frank Crowe continues.

Seedany denies a total of eight allegations of assaulting four elderly residents at Braid Hills Care Home, Edinburgh, between March 5 and May 2 this year.

Join our Facebook group Our Edinburgh to share images and news from and around the Capital