Cruel Bilikesu Olagunju was caught on CCTV ‘manhandling’ 88-year-old John Attard like a ‘rag doll’ at his home on Christmas Eve 2022 – 10 days later, the elderly man died
Horror CCTV shows a carer “violently degrading” a frail elderly man with dementia – just days before he died.
Cruel Bilikesu Olagunju, 42, who had been in the job just six days, was caught on camera “manhandling” John Attard, 88, like a “rag doll” at his home, a court heard. Footage from the 45-minute visit captured the full horrific ordeal that the family of the great-grandfather say he never recovered from.
Olagunju, who at the time was employed by Unique Personnel (UK) Ltd, stripped the great-grandfather naked, threatened to beat him up, and even dragged him across his living room floor – ignoring him as he repeatedly told her she was “hurting” him. At one point, she told him: “Maybe I will beat you up. I will flog you. I will take you to the GP to get injections. I will call the police on you.”
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The distressing images were filmed in the victim’s home in Bexley, Kent, on Christmas Eve 2022 on a camera set up by his son Chris. The following day, Mr Attard was found unresponsive – with blood dripping down the side of his face.
The pensioner was rushed to hospital, where he remained unresponsive, and tragically died 10 days after the incident. Olagunju pleaded guilty to one count of ill-treating or wilfully neglecting an individual while acting as a care worker. She was given a six-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, along with 50 hours unpaid work, at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday.
Speaking after the hearing, Chris, who blasted the lenient sentence as an “insult”, said that although a post-mortem could not prove it, he felt Olagunju’s actions had directly contributed to his father’s sudden decline and death. He added: “If those cameras had not been there, that person could still be out there treating elderly people like this.
“I was expecting a suspended sentence but the length and community service aspect is an insult. What kind of a deterrent is that?” The court also heard a breakdown of the CCTV footage, that begins when Olagunju arrived at 11.20am with the job of washing him and making him some breakfast.
After shouting at him to stand, he slips on the floor and as she struggles to dress him, she is seen stripping him naked in front of a window in full view of the street. The carer is also seen dragging him by the arm and scruff of his collar across the floor and “yanking” him up, causing “great distress”.
At one point, the defendant is heard calling her employer to explain that John was on the floor. Despite being advised not to touch him and to call an ambulance, the carer ignored this request, and instead continued to yank John up herself while complaining “a man” should have been sent to do the job.
She is also seen in the footage taunting Mr Attard by pouring marmalade into his coffee despite knowing he was diabetic and threatening to “flog” him. Chris said he was horrified by how visibly distressed his dad looked throughout the ordeal and described his face as “distorted” as he was being “manhandled”.
He added: “She is physically trying to lift him like a rag doll. His face indicates the discomfort and pain he is feeling. She lifts him off the floor, dragging him toward his armchair. He tells her ‘my head is banging.'”
The carer is heard on the footage saying to Mr Attard: “Me, I’ll flog you, flog you.” She later adds: “Maybe I’ll beat you up. I’ll flog you! Take you to hospital, take you to GP to give *** injections and police.” She is repeatedly told by John throughout: “You are hurting me.”
The footage shows her making breakfast while continuing to threaten violence as she picks up a plastic marmalade sachet and squeezes its entire contents into his coffee. She also pulls his table away, making it hard for him to reach any of the food and spilling hot coffee on him in the process. As she leaves the house, she tells him: “Bye, I will report you to the police.”
During Olagunju’s sentencing, Prosecutor James Benson said her conduct towards Mr Attard had taken multiple forms including “rough handling, verbal aggression, and degrading treatment.” Chris said the following day, Christmas morning, he found his father unresponsive with blood on his lips.
He added: “I called 999 for an ambulance. My wife and I were distraught at his condition and felt the carer’s actions were solely responsible for this. The autopsy could not conclusively prove the carer was responsible. But the autopsy showed he had bruising on the left side of his chest.”
During the sentencing hearing, Mr Benson described her actions as “brusque, inappropriate, and uncaring” and said she “played on her victim’s vulnerability. ” Woolwich Crown Court also heard a victim impact statement from Chris who broke down in tears.
He added: “It was Christmas morning when I found my 88-year-old father unresponsive in bed. He was rushed to hospital and his room was declared a crime scene. This was the morning after he was physically and verbally assaulted by the very person entrusted to care for him.
“Three days after he was admitted to hospital I wrote a victim impact statement. My last words read: ‘I am yet to discover the long-term effect this may have on my dad, and his physical and mental welfare.’ Well, now I know – he never recovered and died seven days later in hospital. An autopsy could not link your actions to his death – but I feel personally that your actions, in part, contributed to his sudden death.”
Chris described his father, who had five children, 11 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, as “kind-hearted, generous, compassionate, and funny”. He added: “He was still enjoying what life he had left.” The distraught son said that re-watching the harrowing CCTV footage for the purpose of the case had had a profound impact on him, and his family.
He said: “For a very long time I was unable to get a full night’s sleep due to dissecting the CCTV over-and-over again in my head. I constantly thought about the fear he must have felt – the indignity of being dragged around and then yanked up off the floor and unceremoniously thrown back onto his chair. That must have been very distressing for him.”
Addressing Olagunju, Chris continued: “When all of this becomes a distant memory for you, our pain will still be here – because you can never ever take back the memories you left my father with at the end of his life, and the memories you have now left us with, for the rest of our lives. If you find it hard to understand how I feel, then just imagine it was me assaulting your loved one on that CCTV, and I’m the one standing where you are now – what sentence would you like this court to give me?”
John was Olagunju’s first assignment as a care worker in the UK. During sentencing, Judge Charlotte Welsh told her: “Frankly it beggars belief that someone would be allocated an elderly man with dementia as their first client. Being a carer is a very, very difficult job and frankly people don’t appreciate it until they need it. I am convinced that you had not received the sufficient training.”
She added: “Your actions are evident of your failure to treat Mr Attard as a person deserving of as much dignity and respect as the rest of us. I accept that there was no malicious intent to your actions and you show genuine remorse. But none of this will help Mr Attard’s family. They have lost a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and their memories of him are now tainted by what they have seen on the CCTV footage – and the way you behaved towards him.”
Olagunju, of Abbey Wood, wearing a light blue satin shirt and jeans, cried silently during the emotional statement. Her defence barrister Mr Tijani said she accepted full responsibility for her conduct – and was “ashamed” of how she had acted.
He continued: “She accepts that she failed in her duty as a carer. She has been suffering from mental anguish as a result of this incident and has instructed me to tell the family she is very sorry.” In mitigation, Mr Tijani said Olagunju had no previous convictions and that Mr Attard had been her first patient, after arriving in the UK from abroad to be a carer.
“On the CCTV, you can see a woman who was not trained properly to deal with the situation she was faced with,” Mr Tijani said.
The Mirror has contacted Unique Personnel (UK) Ltd for comment.
