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Rapist who was allowed to stay in care home attacked dementia victim, court hears.
A convicted rapist sexually assaulted a woman with dementia after he was allowed to live in a care home despite his shocking criminal history, a court heard yesterday.
Care home manager Katie Daysley was told he was a registered sex offender who had served jail time and had a history of sex attacks, violence and drug taking.
But instead of being moved out of the residential home in Hull specialising in the care of elderly people with dementia, Robert Carpenter was allowed to stay.
No plan was put in place to protect other residents, Beverley magistrates court was told.
After six months living in the home, and five days after it was visited by a police officer checking up on him, Carpenter was found committing a sex assault on an elderly woman resident with advanced dementia.
He was later convicted for an offence of engaging in sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder.
Yesterday Miss Daysley, 41, of Hull, went on trial after denying a charge under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 of failing to protect a service user from abuse and improper treatment resulting in avoidable harm.
The homes owner the HICA Group pleaded guilty to a similar offence of failing to protect service users from abuse. Jemima Stephenson, prosecuting for the Care Quality Commission, said Carpenter, now 68, was accepted into the care home for short-term respite care in January 2018 after being found by council officials living in appalling conditions and suffering from burns as a result of self-electrocution.
He told officials his criminal past was jail time for a drug-related stabbing.
In April 2018, social worker Claire Stewart discovered he had in fact served three jail terms with convictions for criminal damage, assault, wounding, grievous bodily harm and sexual assaults.
In March 1979, he had targeted a woman walking home from work, forcing a scarf into her mouth to stop her screaming before breaking her jaw, raping her and throwing her over a fence. He was arrested in 2009 following a cold case review of forensic evidence and later jailed for 18 months.
Mrs Stewart said she immediately told Miss Daysley of his full criminal history, realising there was a strong public interest concern. A deputy manager was also given details of his criminal past, the court heard. The court was told that Miss Daysley failed to carry out a full risk assessment or implement adequate mitigating steps to deal with the very clear risk.
She left her job in May 2018, a month before Carpenters serious sex assault.
A Hull City Council safeguarding manager said her department, which referred Carpenter to the care home, found out about his rape conviction only after the sex assault. Had they known earlier they would probably have recommended he be moved out, the court heard.
The case continues.