Care worker Stanley Nkenka jailed for hitting disabled teen

A care worker has been jailed for six months after he was caught on camera hitting a disabled teenager.

Stanley Nkenka, 36, was caught when the 19-year-old's parents placed a secret camera in his room, at the Oxen Barn Residential Home, in Lancashire.

His solicitor told the court he was frustrated with his employers.

Last month Nkenka, of St Ethelbert's Avenue Bolton, admitted the ill-treatment of a person without mental capacity, at Preston Crown Court.

The teenager's parents noticed he started flinching when they approached him, so decided to place a covert camera in their son's room.

The young man, who cannot speak and is the size of a 12-year-old, was born with a chromosome disorder and has autism and learning difficulties.

The footage showed the defendant bringing the teenager back to his bedroom and hitting him after he wandered off during the night.

'Unkind and uncaring'

Nkenka then pushed him on to the bed and called him "a stupid boy" .

As he lay in darkness, Nkenka later approached him and quietly said: "Do you want some more?", before he went on to strike him again on the back of the head on a separate occasion.

Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Cornwall said: "The ill-treatment that is complained of, seems to me to be dismissive of him as an individual, unkind and uncaring, and really disrespectful of him as a human being.

The judge told Nkenka his complaints about work problems could not "begin to excuse your loss of self-control in relation to this intensely vulnerable young man".

Kathryn Johnson, defending, said her client felt "undervalued" and "isolated" at work and was remorseful for his actions.

However, the judge noted the defendant appeared calm and casual on the covert footage.