A nurse who abused and humiliated elderly residents of an Essex nursing home has been struck off the national register.

A professional misconduct hearing heard how Lesley Platt, 37, had insulted and bullied vulnerable old people at St Joseph's Nursing Homes in Danbury, where she was employed as senior nurse.

Afterwards, Liz McAnulty, the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Health Visiting and Midwifery's director of professional misconduct, said Platt's behaviour showed she was "totally unsuitable" to work as a nurse.

Helen Kitchen, for the UKCC, said on the night of January 7, 2000, Platt, 37, hurled insults at a 70-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer, who had wet herself.

Platt twice pulled the seven stone woman from her bed by the neck to force her onto a commode, council members were told.

Residents looked on as the woman, known as resident A, had her nightdress torn wide open.

Platt was on Friday found guilty of three charges of misconduct over the shocking series of incidents.

But she was cleared of an allegation that she mocked resident A's incontinence, as well as another of assaulting Miss Smallwood and verbally abusing her.

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