CARERS who physically abused a severely disabled woman and laughed while they hurled insults at her were snared after the victim’s family became suspicious and installed a hidden camera in her home.

Catherine Haining, 64, and Anne Marie Young, 60, used a remote control and a roll of tinfoil to strike their vulnerable victim, hurling verbal insults including calling her a “nut job”.

The 42-year-old victim suffers with Angelman syndrome, which affects the nervous system and causes severe physical and learning difficulties.

She lived in Colchester with her sister, who has the same condition. Aspirations Care was responsible for her 24-hour care.

Ipswich Crown Court heard in January last year, the victim’s mother paid her a visit and saw a bruise on her right eye.

The court heard when she raised this with the company, the firm denied knowing how the bruise got there.

Further marks were noted by the family over the following weeks, leading to a request to put a CCTV camera in the property.

The care provider refused this request, so the family took matters into their own hands, installing a camera to covertly capture goings on inside the home.

The victim’s father reviewed footage on February 18, which showed the two defendants laughing at the victim, hitting her repeatedly and pushing her onto a sofa.

The police reviewed footage captured across February 16, 17 and 18, revealing the two defendants had struck the victim with cushions, a remote control, a teddy bear and a roll of foil.

She called the victim names, including “b****, bully, horrible person, and nut job”.

In an impact statement, the victim’s father said he had noticed a change in his daughter’s behaviour while under the care of the two defendants.

He said the family had tried “all other avenues” in searching for the truth, before he got the idea of installing a hidden camera after watching a Panorama programme.

When Haining and Young were arrested and before they were confronted with the footage, they blamed the victim, alleging she had become aggressive and was “difficult to care for”.

At their first appearance before magistrates in July, the pair admitted ill-treatment and neglect.

Joe Bird, mitigating for Haining, said his client was remorseful, adding she had a distinguished career as a carer, but had begun to suffer mental health problems.

He said: “In short, the stress of the job overcame and got the better of her. It meant she was behaving in a way which was utterly out of character.”

Daniel O’Malley, mitigating for Young, said his client “did not recognise” herself in the footage, adding she was “disgusted” by her conduct.

He said Young had been working 12-and-a-half-hour shifts caring for the victim and had felt unsupported by her employers.

Haining, of Bolsin Drive, Colchester, and Young, of Camulodunum Way, Colchester, will be sentenced on Thursday, September 2.