A 75-year-old alleged elder abuse victim appeared to have been left to fend for herself for most of yesterday after two men accused of harming her were banned from her home.

The woman, who is understood to have the mental age of a child, was placed under a protection order earlier this week after it was alleged that the pair had physically and sexually abused and financially exploited her after moving in with her.

Following a bizarre sequence of events yesterday, The Royal Gazette received a telephone call last night from one of her alleged abusers claiming that she was home alone, confused and with no one to cook for her.The 65-year-old man, Mr. A, had visited this newspaper's offices yesterday morning when he denied all knowledge of the protection order and insisted that he was the senior's legitimate carer and would be returning to her home last night to make her dinner.

When he called The Royal Gazette just before 7 p.m. last night, Mr. A said he had been to Hamilton Police Station during the day and an officer had confirmed that he was banned from returning.

He said he had just spoken to the woman, Miss C, by telephone and she was on her own and had not eaten.

This newspaper, which is not naming the men in order to protect the identity of their alleged victim, reported the conversation to Cabinet Minister Dale Butler, who is responsible for seniors.

He replied by e-mail at 7.04 p.m. to say his staff were "on it".At 8.44 p.m., he reported that Senior Abuse Registrar Melvin Dickinson and his staff had spent the evening with Miss C and that Mr. A was gone from the property.

"The National Office will now look at a short and long term plan for her and ensure that her needs are met and she is not taken advantage of,"he said.Earlier in the day, the head of Age Concern called for Miss Cto be removed from her home immediately.

Claudette Fleming, executive director of the seniors' charity, said Dr. Dickinson needed to ensure the woman was in a secure environment until safety measures were put in place.

Opposition MP Louise Jackson, meanwhile, claimed Government had "failed" the elderly woman and should have intervened much sooner.

Miss C was placed under the protection order due to allegations that Mr. A and a 45-year-old man, Mr. B, had moved into her home and abused her, as The Royal Gazette revealed yesterday.

Mr. Butler told this newspaper on Tuesday that the order the first to be made under the new Senior Abuse Register Act 2008 banned the pair from going to her home.Ms Fleming said loopholes existed within the new elder abuse law concerning the care of at risk seniors while investigations into abuse were being conducted.

"I hope that immediate means can be found to secure this senior until a full investigation of the case can be undertaken," she said."It is unfortunate but perhaps very true that until the elder abuse act was introduced there has been little teeth to protect older persons in these types of situations. And, despite the very passionate concerns of elected Members of Parliament even with the current legislation in place, there are still loopholes like the timing, removal and placement of a senior at risk while an investigation is being undertaken

"She added: "We cannot be satisfied that nothing can be done, we must make a way and a start would be for the Registrar to remove this senior from their current environment until short to medium safety measures have been put in place and, quite frankly, let the chips fall where they may after that.

"The longer-range work would be for high-ranking Government officials and the elected Members of Parliament to pick up the Senior Abuse Register Act once again and tighten the loopholes so that the likelihood of a senior being left in a vulnerable situation like this is decreased, if not completely eliminated."

Ms Fleming said the case highlighted the fact that the whole community needed to share responsibility for ensuring seniors were safe.

"Should Minister Butler determine that drastic measures be taken to protect this senior at this time, I support his decision to do so," she said.Mrs. Jackson, Shadow Minister for Health and Seniors, who made a complaint about the case to the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged and Police a year ago and raised it with Mr. Butler last week, said: "Ineed to make sure that people understand that the government offices have failed.

"We now have the Senior Abuse Register Act and this case is known to the National Office and the Police for months and months and they just let this thing go. The Minister swung into action only after a crisis arose with this lady and he was notified that his officers at the National Office, the Police and others were not responding to the cries for help.

This case reached such a climax of horror that the Minister had to step in to solve this."

She added: "I don't really blame him as much as I do the people who are working under him. He is the Minister and he can't run around doing the job of his National Office for Seniors. That's their job."She said the competency of the National Office needed to be scrutinised in the light of this case and that of "Auntie Em", another alleged elder abuse victim who was only removed from her home when a nursing assistant took her in.

Mrs. Jackson said there had been two alleged cases of "terrible elder abuse" in Bermuda. "Is this agency able to deal with these cases? The next time, what will the excuse be?"Mr. Butler said: "Because the National Office is at a critical stage of doing its job we will not take this any further in the public domain.

"It is critical that we not make this a 'soap opera'. We are trying to guarantee the safety of the senior and we are trying to ensure that she is not abused in any way.

"The National Office is working hard to ensure that this senior is cared for and we will not therefore be taking any more time away from that goal.

We will at the appropriate time give a more detailed response if warranted."

Police reiterated an earlier statement that they were actively looking into the case after a report was made.