Care home provider fined after woman raped by another resident
- Published
A judge said there was "a systemic failure within the organisation"
A care home provider has been fined £363,000 after failing to protect a woman who was raped by another resident responsible for almost 80 "sexualised" and violent incidents.
The attack took place at a Nottinghamshire care home, Nottingham Magistrates' Court heard.
The man was convicted but the Care Quality Commission (CQC) prosecuted the firm that ran the care home as well.
It admitted two charges including failing to protect a service user.
'Systemic failure'
The court heard there had been 79 incidents of violence and sexualised behaviour involving the male resident, culminating in the rape.
He was convicted of eight sexual offences but the CQC prosecuted the company after what the court heard was a failure to act on "clearly escalating behaviour".
The company, which cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to failing to protect a service user resulting in avoidable harm, and failing to have systems in place to avoid harm to service users.
District Judge Leo Pyle said: "His behaviour should have been addressed earlier.
"It was obvious that there was a high likelihood of harm.
"No alarm bells were ringing. Incidents involving staff were recorded and this required management action. None happened.
"While he was living there, there was a period of time when the registered manager was on maternity leave... and there was no manager, no deputy manager and what cover there was clearly did not fill the void.
"In my view, it was a systemic failure within the organisation."
Defence lawyer Mark Ruffell said staff should have "joined the dots" but stressed eight or nine safeguarding referrals made to social services had been rejected.
Meanwhile, police had been called out several times but either did not attend or "matters just dissipated", Mr Ruffell added.
Responding to this, the judge added: "The outside bodies ought to reflect on how they responded.
"However, the ultimate responsibility for safeguarding service users rested with the management of the defendant company."
He also ordered the firm to pay £12,441 in prosecution costs.
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