Hidden camera at Whittlesey care home shows abuse before man died

A care home resident was hit by a carer and had his food eaten by staff in the days before his death, undercover footage has revealed.

Ron Carter, 82, died at The Gables in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, in May 2020 about six months after moving in.

A hidden camera disguised as a clock in his room recorded what the care regulator has called "awful abuse".

HC-One, which ran the home, said the behaviour was "unacceptable" and has apologised to the family.

Ron Carter had been at The Gables for six months before he died

Nobody has faced criminal charges in relation to the incidents captured in the recordings in May 2020.

Two people were arrested, while police found eight other carers' "actions as captured on the covert footage were not compatible with their role".

'I don't like it here'

HC-One said it removed the agency staff involved "as soon as concerns were raised" and stopped using the company concerned.

Mr Carter's daughter Max Carter said: "I think, to me in my eyes, Dad had been through so much abuse in that care home, he let himself go."

She said her retired electrician father was "full of life" and "liked helping everyone", but was diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer's in 2016.

Mr Carter's family, knowing about stories of abuse at care homes, installed the camera in order to protect him.

He died on 15 May 2020, and Ms Carter has been left "wishing" she viewed the footage before he was cremated, without a post-mortem examination to find a conclusive cause of death.

The footage showed:

• A care worker hitting Mr Carter on the morning of 13 May, 2020, after which he can be heard crying out in apparent pain

• Mr Carter is seemingly vocal in distress at times when carers are in the room, and appears to tell one care worker "I don't like it here"

• He was diabetic but staff on numerous occasions can be seen eating his food

• Other residents wandering in and out of Mr Carter's room around the time a Covid outbreak was ongoing at the home, all at the height of pandemic restrictions

Max Carter said she felt like she failed because no-one was ever convicted or held accountable

Ms Carter said a carer with her father on the morning of his death was "unaware that he was washing someone that wasn't there anymore".

She said he was "undressing Dad in an angry way, ripping his vest off and chucking it on the floor and then trying to pull this sheet from under my dad which, literally, he was a dead weight."

After the alarm was raised it then appeared to take nearly six minutes for carers to confirm Mr Carter had a "do not resuscitate order" in place, an order his family said they did not know about.

Since Mr Carter's death, The Gables and HC-One's four other care homes in Cambridgeshire have all closed down over failings.

In relation to Mr Carter's case, a spokesman for the company, which still runs nearly 300 homes in the UK, said: "The behaviour described is unacceptable and we send our deepest apologies and condolences to Mr Carter's family.

"We do not tolerate any kind of mistreatment of our residents and co-operated fully with the police during their investigations."

Ron Carter with his wife Trish

Two carers were arrested on suspicion of ill-treatment by a care worker, but a decision on whether to charge them took two years.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has since apologised to Mr Carter's family and admitted that the high workload of staff caused a delay, calling it an "organisational failing".

During the investigation officers also lost the recording of a suspect's interview - which was only spotted eight months later.

In May 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) chose not to prosecute and stated the footage was obscured.

An email detailing a CPS lawyer's decision said one suspect's actions "would be classed as a common assault" but the six-month time limit on that charge had passed.

Police have since told the BBC it "would not have been appropriate to charge the suspects with the lesser offence... when we felt that there was a reasonable prospect of charge for the more serious offence".

The Gables shut down late in 2023

It said "protecting vulnerable people is a force priority" and, since Mr Carter's death, it had increased the number of detectives in the adult abuse investigation and safeguarding unit.

Ms Carter said she felt she failed because nobody was ever convicted or held accountable.

"These residents have worked hard all their life and that's how they're treated at the end of their life. It's absolutely disgusting," she said.

Asked if she believed Covid had an impact on what happened to her father, she said: "I just think no-one should act like that. If they're a carer, it's in the name, they should care for people."

A spokesperson for NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough said: "We take the safety and wellbeing of residents in local care homes incredibly seriously.

"We work closely with the local authority as well as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to respond to any concerns about providers."

A CQC spokesman said: "The provider made us aware of Ron Carter's awful abuse through a mandatory notification in 2020, informing us this had also been raised to the local authority's safeguarding team.

"It's unacceptable that he was treated so poorly by people meant to be caring for him."

Do you have a story to share with the BBC East Investigations Team?

You can reach Phil Shepka by email at [e-mail]