Winterbourne View 11 sentenced for abuse and ill-treatment (From Gazette Series)

Winterbourne View 11 sentenced for abuse and ill-treatment

10:13am Saturday 27th October 2012 in News By Alexandra Womack

A JUDGE has sentenced six former care workers at Winterbourne View private hospital to prison for physically and emotionally abusing patients.

Wayne Rogers, Alison Dove, Graham Doyle, Holly Draper, Sookalingum Appoo and Kelvin Fore were all imprisoned for their parts in the abuse scandal which was revealed by an undercover reporter working for the BBC’s Panorama programme.

A further five workers, Jason Gardiner, Michael Ezenagu, Daniel Brake, Charlotte Cotterell and Holly Draper, were handed suspended sentences for a number of charges.

Rogers, 32, of Purton Close, Kingswood was given the lengthiest sentence having pleaded guilty to nine charges. Last week Bristol Crown Court was shown footage of Rogers, who previously worked with foster children, taunting, slapping, wrestling and pouring cold water on two patients at the hospital with serious learning difficulties.

Recorder Judge Neil Ford told him: "I accept that what I have seen is only a snapshot of the culture of cruelty at Winterbourne View.

"I have taken into account the testimonials written about you and the thoughtful letter you have written expressing remorse for the hurt you have caused. I accept you now regard your conduct as wholly unacceptable, grotesque and degrading."

He sentenced Rogers, a father-of-one whose partner is standing by him, to two years in prison.

Dove, 26, of Chipperfield Drive, Kingswood, was shown to incite patients to fight one another and was said to have displayed a ‘confrontational’ attitude. She was sentenced to 20 months in jail.

Of Doyle, 26, of Bradley Road, Patchway, Mr Ford said: "Your treatment of Simone Blake was often cruel, callous and degrading. It was always unjustified."

He received a 20-month jail term.

Draper, 24, of The Old Orchard, Mangotsfield, was sentenced to one year in jail for two charges of abuse.

Appoo, 59, a charge nurse at the hospital, of Dial Lane, Kingswood, and Fore, 34, of Ellesmere Walk, Middlesborough, were both given six-month sentences.

Mr Ford said Winterbourne View owners Castlebeck had run the £3,500 a week hospital purely for profit.

“These patients were subjected to a miserable existence,” he said. “The common ground in these cases is that the hospital was run with a view to profit with a scandalous lack of regard to the interests of residents and staff.

“A culture of ill treatment developed and as is often the case, cruelty breads cruelty. This culture corrupted and debased to varying degrees these defendants, all of whom were of previous good character.”

Gardiner, 43, of Mellent Avenue, Hartcliffe, and Brake, 28, of Beechen Drive, Fishponds were sentenced to four months in jail suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.

Ezenagu, 39, of White City, London and Ferguson, 28, of Guest Avenue, Emersons Green, were given six-month suspended sentences and 200 hours community service.

Cotterell, 22, of Melrose Avenue, Yate, was said to have an IQ of 67 and had a ‘significant intellectual impairment’. After seeing footage of her bending the fingers back of one patient, Mr Ford sentenced her to four months in prison suspended for two years and 150 hours community service.