Nursing aide imprisoned for two years for striking elderly patient

42-year-old nursing aide at government home given a two-year effective sentence for lightly injuring an elderly patient who refused to cooperate

St Vincent de Paule Residence
St Vincent de Paule Residence

George-Michael Spiteri, a nursing aide at a government home, was last week sentenced to an effective sentence of two years in prison after he was found guilty of having slapped 92-year-old patient Carmelo Bonello in the face, after the patient acted aggressively during a routine bath.

Spiteri, 42 years old and at the time employed at St Vincent de Paule Residence, had been charged with having unjustifiably caused Bonello physical pain or mental anguish while the dependent patient was under his care. He was also charged with causing slight injuries to Bonello, without the intent to murder or put the patient’s life in danger, and with having committed an act to the detriment of someone else and contrary to his duties while employed as a public official.

The court had heard how, on July 31 2015, Spiteri had been assigned a constant watch of Bonello. The patient refused to be washed and started resisting Bonello, with the nursing aid losing his patience and striking him in the face, as he held the patient’s arms down.

Chantelle Bonello, a cleaner at the home, witnessed the incident and immediately reported it to her superiors. Spiteri had later admitted to the police to striking the elderly Bonello once, but had retracted this in court and claimed he had not hit the patient, and only admitted to it after being forced.

The court said that the cleaner’s eyewitness testimony, together with the testimony of her superiors and of doctors who examined the patient and found he had suffered slight injuries, left no doubt that an incident had occurred between Spiteri and the patient, which left the latter injured.

Other witnesses in the case testified that Bonello was a quiet individual who did his job very well.

The court however emphasised that it was unacceptable for Spiteri to have acted violently on the 92-year-old Bonello, and the fact that the elderly man had aggressively resisted taking a bath was not grounds for justification.

Saying that the elderly were amongst the most vulnerable in our society and had to be afforded the protection of the law, the court thus found Spiteri guilty as charged, and sentenced him to an effective term of two years imprisonment, the minimum sentence prescribed by the law for his crime.

Inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Spiridione Zammit prosecuted.

Lawyers Lucio Sciriha and Franco Galea appeared for the defence, while lawyer Arthur Azzopardi appeared parte-civile for the victim.