‘Torture’ nurse is struck off

The case of David Hill, 49, went before a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing. He was jailed for six months last year for the sickening abuse.

At the time the Star reported how Hill, formerly of Cowley Hill Lane, tormented Dorothy Tunstall while working at Victoria Nursing Home, in Rainford.

Hill, clinical manager of the 30-bed unit, squirted the resident with water from a syringe, force fed her and flicked food at her.

He had also fitted her into an electronic hoist and raised her up and down for his own amusement.

A NMC Conduct and Competence Committee panel who examined Hill’s case at a hearing in London took “particular regard to the sentencing remarks of the judge who heard the facts of the case”, a statement setting out their conclusions revealed.

In a statement the panel said: “The judge’s view that the registrant (Hill) abused his trust and engaged in degrading and humiliating behaviour with regard to a vulnerable patient is shared by the panel.

“This behaviour would inevitably bring the nursing profession into disrepute.

“There is no evidence before the panel of either insight or remorse, notwithstanding the sentence to which the registrant has been subject.

“The panel is clear that the registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired.”

The NMC panel imposed a striking off order, with an 18-month interim suspension to cover the period of a potential appeal.

His former colleague Kathleen Roberts, 57, was also charged with the ill treatment or neglect of a person that lacks capacity under the Mental Health Act.

She was said to have played a lesser role, laughing and encouraging him. Roberts was sentenced to four months in jail, suspended for 18 months.

Mrs Tunstall, who was married for 58 years to husband Albert, 88, and lived in Nutgrove all her married life, died in April last year.

Mrs Tunstall’s only daughter, Wendy, 49 told the Star of her outrage at the abuse last year. She has welcomed the decision.