Care worker sentenced.

A North Yorkshire care home worker who subjected dementia patients to horrendous physical abuse and ridicule has been jailed for 18 months after being reported to police by her own brother.

Siobhan Koralewski, 30, terrorised elderly victims at Roundstones Care Home, Filey,  which claimed to have the highest standards of care for dementia patients.

Durham Crown Court heard that Koralewski decided to take revenge on 88-year-old resident, Kenneth Pinkney, after he lashed out at her mother, Margaret, owner of the care home, because of his condition.

She danced in front of him, on July 17 2012, taking her top off, showing her vest and shouting: “Do you like that you dirty old man?”

Koralewski then slapped him across the face four times and pulled him by his leg. As he fell on the floor she sat astride him and bounced on top of him before squeezing and biting his leg so he cried out in pain.

The attack was witnessed by Koralewski’s brother, Jeremy, who, with the help of his partner, Jennifer Price, reported his sister to the police.

 In a separate incident, Koralewski stuffed toilet roll into the mouth of another dementia sufferer, Elizabeth Hall, who also has Down’s syndrome, to stop her from screaming.

Prosecuter, Clare Benson, told the court how Ms Hall’s sister, Bessie Grainger, now suffered from overwhelming feelings of guilt for allowing her sister to be put in the care of Roundstones, as she had promised her mother and father to love and care for her.

Margaret Koralewski bought the home with her husband in 2004 and employed their daughter as a senior carer and deputy manager and their son as a cook.

Koralewski, of Brooklands, Filey, denied five counts of ill treatment on a person who lacks capability but was convicted after the seven-day trial in November.

Robert Newcombe, for Koralewski, urged the court to suspend the sentence. He said: “My client’s mother has collapsed and broken her hip and she now has to care, cook and clean for her in the family home where she lives. She will not be able to work in a care home in the future but she needs to care for her parents and her three-year-old daughter, who she lives with.”

But Judge Howard Crowson told Koralewski: “Relatives choose to place ones they love somewhere where they will be treated with respect and dignity. You let them down badly.”

He also praised whistle-blowers Jeremy and Jennifer who are now at loggerheads with the rest of the family and have lost their jobs.