A nursing home assistant attacked a female patient with dementia and gave her a black eye, a court heard.

Barbara King Bean, 53, was caught after the patient was taken to hospital with a swollen eye.

Magistrates’ Court was told that the elderly woman suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and oedema — a build-up of fluid in the body — and suffered from speech problems.

The woman’s daughter reported the eye problem to staff at the home, who feared that the oedema had spread to the woman’s face.

She was transferred to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Doctors found that her eye was bloodshot and bruised, symptoms not usually found in oedema, and contacted police.

Police checked CCTV footage from the patient’s room, which showed King Bean remove the woman from her bed before she hit her and pulled clothing from her hand.

The bruised eye was spotted by the patient’s daughter, who visited her mother on May 9,

King Bean, from Southampton, pleaded guilty to assault. She apologised and told the court she had attempted to clean the patient after she found her lying in a wet bed.

She admitted she might have been too aggressive as she tried to move the woman.

Magistrate Tyrone Chin ordered that neither the victim nor the care home should be identified.

He released King Bean on $2,000 bail for a social inquiry report and adjourned the case until January 10 next year.

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