Three men have been jailed after being convicted of abusing care home residents in Sutton.
A four-week trial at Croydon Crown Court heard how the men, all from Sutton, punched, slapped and verbally abused residents with learning disabilities who were in their care at Grove House.
Georgios Skordoulis, 28, and Ahmed Hassanen, 54, were each handed 24-month custodial sentences while Alex Nazareth, 30, was jailed for 18 months.
One care worker told the trial that she saw “physical assaults every day” on a resident.
Sentencing the three men yesterday, Judge Antony Hymans-Parish said their actions were “cruel” and they had “routinely abused and humiliated” their victims.
The care home on Grove Road, central Sutton, opened in January 2019 and the abuse came to light a few months later when a member of staff contacted the Metropolitan Police.
In relation to one of the victims, all three men were found guilty of abuse that included spraying water at him, locking him in a room by propping a chair against his door, deliberately hitting him in the head, picking him up roughly and dragging him by his arms and legs, twisting his arms, pinching him, throwing possessions away for no reason, squeezing his genitals and pouring water over his head.
Skordoulis and Hassanen were also found guilty of abusing a second victim by insulting him, throwing water over him, not allowing him food or to spend his own money, attacking him, ripping or damaging his clothes and possessions, and pushing and irritating him so that he could not sleep.
Cruel: Georgios Skordoulis. Pic: Metropolitan Police
The court heard that one resident, Benjamin Daniels, bore the brunt of the assaults.
Daniels, 24, has severe learning disabilities and very little communication skills. The court heard evidence that Daniels was swung around a room by his waist by Skordoulis.
Another carer saw Nazareth wrap a tea towel around his knuckles and punch Benjamin on his jaw.
He then turned to his colleague and said: “That’s how you don’t leave bruises.”
Daniels would often be locked in his room with a heavy wooden oak chair placed under the door handle so that he was unable to get out, or he would be shut in the home’s living room.
A support worker at Grove House said she also saw him naked and locked in the conservatory by staff.
The three men were also seen pinching Daniels, twisting his arm or grabbing him by the hair and dragging him upstairs to his room.
Another resident was regularly referred to as “fatboy” or “greaseball” by both Skordoulis and Hassanen.
Brutal: Ahmed Hassanen. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Theo Osmani, 22, who has been diagnosed with autism, chromosome disorder and epilepsy, was also regularly hit.
On one occasion when he said he was tired and wanted to go to sleep, Hassanen told all female staff to leave his room.
One female staff member said she could hear shouting and scuffling noises through the door. On other similar occasions she said Osmani would come out of his room with his T-shirt ripped and reddened, and he’d need a plaster.
Osmani’s mother told the court that when she visited him, he would have bruises on his body, arms, legs, face and back.
One another occasion, Osmani had a golf ball-sized lump on his forehead, which Skordoulis explained away as self-harming, even though the client had no history of self-harming.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Benjamin Daniel’s mother said she could no longer trust any home to look after her son and was caring for him herself.
“I am stressed, anxious and worried about Benny’s future,” said Elizabeth Daniels.
“I’ve been having panic attacks since I found out what happened at Grove House. I gave up my job and became a full-time carer.”
Theo Osmani’s mother, Kerry Carter, told the court that what her son had experienced at Grove House “had a significant impact on him, primarily because he was forced to move again which was very disruptive. He remembers that people were unkind”.
Bully: Alex Nazareth. Pic: Metropolitan Police
Carter added: “It has had a significant emotional impact on me as his mother. I knew something was going on at Grove House so I would turn up unexpected. I was afraid of what would happen to him behind closed doors.
“I still feel guilty every day thinking I should have done something sooner. Staff tried to convince me that everything was ok when it wasn’t.”
The court heard the home, which was run at the time by the Heathcote Care Home Service, did not have enough staff to deal with the residents it had but continued to admit new users.
Some staff were allowed to start work before they had been fully trained to deal with the particular challenges of dealing with the care home’s residents.
The judge said that while he accepted there were problems in the running of Grove House, he told all three men that “when I look at the treatment meted out at these two young people, in my judgement that treatment was wholly unjustified and goes far beyond any difficulties or problems there were managing the home”.
The allegations, he went on, were “clearly cruel and there was a very serious breach of trust. There is a very uncomfortable theme of gratuitous degradation of two young people unable to do anything about it”.
Thea Viney, the Crown Prosecution Services London District prosecutor, said: “This is a really shocking example of a disability hate crime, involving the abuse of very vulnerable people with complex needs.
“The victims should have been able to trust and rely on Alex Nazareth, Georgios Skordoulis and Ahmed Hassanen to look after them and keep them safe from harm, but instead they were subjected to horrendous abuse, with evidence of emotional and psychological mistreatment.
“We worked in partnership with the police from an early stage to build a case that centred on the offenders’ behaviour and conduct, with key witness evidence proving that they were clearly acting contrary to training, protocols and the individual needs of each victim.
“There is no doubt that the victims in this case will have been caused significant distress, but I hope there will be a sense of justice for them, their families and the wider community following today’s sentence.”
The Grove House home was sold to the Ivolve Group in 2020, after the assaults were discovered. In a statement, the company said the abuse was “upsetting for everybody here, and we’re pleased those responsible have been brought to justice”.
Grove House was awarded a “Good” rating by Care Quality Commission following an inspection carried out in January 2023.
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
