A CARE worker accused of pinching and nipping elderly dementia sufferers has been cleared by a jury.

During an eight-day trial at Bolton Court it was said that 29-year-old Maidi Nizeyimana had squeezed the fingers of three male residents at the Bupa-run Millview Residential and Nursing Home in Bridgeman Street as well as pinching the foot of an elderly woman.

The allegations were made by another care assistant, Catherine Murray, who was working alongside Nizeyimana on the night of September 7, 2011.

Mrs Murray and the defendant were res-ponsible for getting the residents, who all had late stage dementia, their suppers then washing them and undressing them and putting them to bed.

Mrs Murray told the court she had seen Nizeyimana squeezing the fingers of residents and bending their arms, leading them to cry out in pain, when they resisted taking off their upper clothing.

A female resident was also said to have had her foot nipped by Nizeyimana after she kicked out as she was being put into bed.

Mrs Murray rep-orted the alleged incidents to her bosses the following evening and Nizeyimana, who was pregnant at the time, was suspended and subsequently dismissed. Nizeyimana, of Fernstead Deane, denied the allegations, saying the incidents did not happen, and pleaded not guilty to four counts of ill-treating or wilfully neglecting a person without mental capacity.

A jury of six men and six women spent five hours deliberating the evidence before finding her not guilty on all counts.

In a statement following the trial Bupa confirmed Nizeyimana had been dismissed following the allegations.