Lisburn - A carer in Northern Ireland has pleaded guilty to abuse after she was caught on camera eating the food intended for a 70-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer placed in her care.
The family of Ivy McCluskey became concerned about their elderly mother when it became apparent that she was rapidly losing weight.
Mrs McCluskey, who had Alzheimer's disease and who had also survived a stroke, relied on 54-year old Patricia Young to deliver her nutritional needs.
However, as Mrs McCluskey's daughters had noticed their mother's dwindling weight, and the fact that her stomach was rumbling at night when they put her to bed, they decided to set up a camera to find out what was going on.
The footage from the camera clearly shows Patricia Young eating more than one dish which Mrs McCluskey's daughter had left prepared for Young to feed to her mother.
Ivy McCluskey died within 12 weeks of the footage being recorded in October 2009.
One of Ivy McCluskey's daughters, Mandy, said, "We were really baffled. Mummy was declinling, losing all this weight, but we did not know why.
"At night, when she was put down to bed, her belly was rumbling. She was actually starving with hunger."
Her other daughter Diane explained the guilt that she herself was feeling and said, "Even though you have the carers in there to take the pressure off, then you're feeling we should have done it all ourselves and then we wouldn't have to live with this."
South-Eastern Health Trust in Northern Ireland, who employed Young through contract from an agency, apologised today "for the unacceptable standard of care provided to Mrs McCluskey."
Young has already admitted to two counts of abuse and is due for sentencing on February 22 this year.
Originally published on Digital Journal on January 24 2011.
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