This is the moment a secret camera set up by his concerned mother and father captured a care worker hitting their disabled teenager on the back of the head and calling him stupid.
Stanley
Nkenka was caught abusing Zak Rowlands, 19, after his concerned parents
set up the hidden camera in his bedroom in Oxen Barn Residential Home
in Leyland, Lancashire, because he had started flinching when people
came near him.
And
the fears of Paul and Julie Rowlands were confirmed when they watched
the footage and saw their son being hit on the back of his head as he
was put to bed before the teenager was left sobbing on his own in the
darkness.
Nkenka has been jailed for six months after he pleaded guilty to ill treatment.
In
the video clip the 35-year-old is seen hitting the boy on the back of
the head and flicking him as he tells him to go to bed. He then pushes
the teenager on the bed and says 'it's time to sleep' and calls him a
'stupid boy.'
As the youngster lays in darkness, Nkenka warns him 'Don't come out, or I will hit your head' before he swipes at him again.
Nkenka is seen later approaching Zak and saying quietly: 'Do you want some more?' before he leaves him alone in his bedroom.
Nkenka calls Zak stupid as he puts him to bed and then threatens to hit him if he gets out of his bed again
Zak
Rowlands, 19, (left) who cannot speak and suffers with autism and severe
learning difficulties, was hit round the head, threatened and then
called a 'stupid boy' by carer Stanley Nkenka (right) on his birthday
At the end of the clip the teenager is heard sobbing on his own in the darkness.
Mr Rowlands, a firefighter, told the Daily Mirror: 'Seeing that man do this to my son sent a chill down my spine.
'I felt guilt that I wasn't there for Zak when he needed me most.'
Mr
Rowlands said his wife, a police woman, had persuaded him to go through
the police rather than confront Nkenka himself. The couple are now
campaigning to have cameras installed in all care home bedrooms in a bid
to stop patients being abused.
'Sadly we believe this treatment is rife in the care industry,' said Mr Rowlands.
Nkenka is seen helping Zak on with his dressing gown before they go out of the bedroom at Oxen Barn
Nkenka brings Zak back to his bedroom after the teenager had apparently got up and told him to go to bed
As he puts Zak to bed Nkenka calls him stupid and repeatedly says 'down' to get him to move down in bed
The 35-year-old leaves the teenager in the darkness and threatens if he gets up again he will hit him again
He
said he felt disabled patients needed property dignity and should
therefore have cameras in their rooms to ensure they were not being
mistreated.
Oxen
Barn - privately run by the Priory Group - is a specialist home for
adults who have autistic spectrum disorders and severe learning
difficulties. The Priory Group said it had a 'zero tolerance' policy
towards abuse and Nkena was sacked immediately after his 'totally
unacceptable' actions came to light.
Nkenka,
36, from Bolton, pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court last month to
ill-treatment of a person without mental capacity in the early hours of
May 12.
At
the hearing Judge Christopher Cornwall said: 'The ill-treatment that is
complained of seems to me to be dismissive of him as an individual,
unkind and uncaring, and really disrespectful of him as a human being.
'Carers
must know that if they fall so far below the standards that are
expected of them to the extent that they ill-treat the people they care
for, they must know they put their liberty at jeopardy.'
Zak Rowlands' father Paul (left) said Nkenka (right) has damaged the trust they have in the care of their son
When his parents noticed the teenager was flinching, they set up a hidden camera at Oxen Barn care home
Mrs
Rowlands previously told the court: 'When I saw the video recording of
Nkenka hitting him, I felt sick, heartbroken, angry and incredibly
guilty.
'It's
hard to articulate the actual words that really describe my emotions.
I'm scared, really scared that it will happen again.'
She said she knew something was wrong when her son started to flinch when he was touched or approached.
'Sadly
Zak, my loving, affectionate, special and incredibly vulnerable son
hasn't the mental capacity to be able to speak but he communicates in
his own way,' she told the court.
'By
making sounds and by the sparkle in his eyes when he's happy and by the
tears and the sorrow in his eyes when he's sad or hurt. But when that's
not enough I am my son's voice and will always be until I take my last
breath.
Earlier
this year, two care workers working for another Priory Group company in
Bury were jailed for seven months after they were caught on a secret
camera physically and verbally abusing a quadriplegic man.
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