UK Caregiver Gets 8 Months in Prison for Abusing 101-Year-Old Woman

Police tape in a stock photo. (Carl Ballou/Shutterstock)

Warning: Disturbing footage.

A U.K. caregiver who was filmed secretly slapping and abusing a 101-year-old patient was jailed for eight months, it was reported.

Ashikiah Reid, 36, was caught on camera acting rough with the elderly woman’s face. She was also seen slapping her arms and hands, according to a statement from the West Midlands Police. At one point, she is seen pointing a finger at the elderly woman’s face.

Police stated that Reid was filmed via hidden cameras after the victim’s family became concerned about the 101-year-old. In August, detectives launched an investigation into the matter after relatives gave them the footage.

Last week, she was sentenced at the Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to mistreating the woman.

“I am glad the woman responsible for inflicting unnecessary distress and pain on a defenseless woman has been put behind bars,” police constable David Nash said in a statement. ”A lot of trust is put into personal carers and this trust was shattered by Reid’s actions against this woman.”

“I hope this can offer the victim’s family some closure, knowing that someone that showed no moral compass when caring for the elderly has been brought to justice,” said Nash.

The report noted that Reid has since been fired from her job and will never be able to work in the field again.

Other details about the case are not clear.

The police force said the elderly woman was suffering from dementia.

Her identity was not revealed.

Crime in UK Hits Record Levels

Knife crime in England and Wales has risen to its highest-ever level, with a new report noting over 39,000 edged-weapon offenses committed during the past year.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Oct. 18 that the total of 39,332 recorded knife crimes between July 2017 and June 2018 represents a 12 percent rise in violent crime involving edged weapons and other sharp instruments.

Statisticians noted, however, that this figure excludes the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) numbers, with respect to which they additionally “identified undercounting of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument.” Including the GMP figures—undercounted as they are—the U.K. saw at least 41,884 knife crimes.

Meghan Elkin, head of the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, told The Independent that knife crime has been on the rise for four years.

“There have been some improvements in recording by police but we do think this is a genuine increase,” she said.

Crimes involving knives in the U.K. are most prominent in metro areas.

“While knife crime remains a rare crime, today’s figures show knife crime recorded by the police in London is at the highest level since data started to be collected for the year ending March 2009,” ONS officials noted.

Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this article.