Review due into ill-treatment of vulnerable patients at care home

Michael Ezenagu, 29, admitted two charges of ill-treating Simone Blake at the Winterbourne View private hospital in Hambrook, South Gloucestershire.

The care home was exposed by BBC1’s Panorama last year when an undercover reporter recorded secret footage of patients being abused. The video appeared to show vulnerable residents being pinned down, slapped, doused in water and taunted.

Since first broadcast, the home’s owner, Castlebeck, has closed Winterbourne View and two other homes following concerns raised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A total of 11 staff at the private hospital have now pleaded guilty to offences relating to the ill-treatment of patients.

The staff originally faced more than 40 allegations of ill-treating and wilfully neglecting five patients in their care between February and March 2011.

Ezenagu, of Hammersmith, west London, pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court to two counts of ll-treating Miss Blake. He denied two further charges of ill-treating the same patient and a third similar charge against another.

All 11 defendants are on bail with the condition they are not allowed to work or seek work with vulnerable people.

Pre-sentence reports were also ordered for each and the sentencing hearing, on a date to be fixed, could take up to a week.

Dame Jo Williams, chair of the Care Quality Commission, said: “We will have more to say on CQC’s role in this case – and the steps we have taken since – when the serious case review, examining the role of all the agencies involved, is published.”