HICA Group fined £128,000 for failures that allowed sex attack on dementia patient

Robert Carpenter, who had a criminal record dating back to 1968, including a lengthy prison sentence for brutally raping a woman in 1979, carried out the attack in June 2018 at the HICA-owned Raleigh Court in Cambridge Street, Hull.

He had been in the home for five months when he assaulted the woman, 75, having being left alone with her. Carpenter and his victim have both since died.

At Beverley Magistrates on Friday District Judge Daniel Curtis fined HICA Group, £128,000, and ordered it to pay costs of £10,645, and a victim surcharge of £120.

HICA Group had admitted breaching the Health and Social Care Act, relating to its failure to safeguard the resident from abuse and improper treatment, causing her avoidable harm.

Care home manager Katie Daysley, 41, of Kirk Ella, who was found guilty of a similar charge, was fined £1,000, costs of £15,067 and a victim surcharge of £100.

Hull Council had placed Carpenter in the care home in January 2018 as an “emergency placement”. Prior to the case, the council agreed to pay damages to the woman’s husband for its own failings.