By Lucy Cockcroft
Last Updated: 10:56AM BST 21/05/2008
A nursing home manager who failed properly to feed a former soldier who later died in an "appalling" catalogue of neglect has been sent to prison for six months.
Kathleen Vitturini was supposed to be in charge of caring for Peter Giles, but instead she allowed the 57-year-old Parkinson's disease sufferer to lose two stone in just 10 days.
Mr Giles, who also had mental health problems, suffered a "rapid deterioration" and died from pneumonia and septicaemia contracted during his stay at the Abbeycroft Care Home in Bispham, Lancashire.
Vitturini, who ran the home, was arrested when a coroner who examined Mr Giles was so concerned about his appearance that he contacted police.
The 62-year-old was originally charged with manslaughter, but the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to accept her guilty plea to the lesser charge of wilful neglect at Preston Crown Court.
Andrew Moran QC, prosecuting, said: "Many obligatory standards had been breached by the defendant and the staff.
The judge, Mr Justice Stephen Irwin, said: "Those who profit from and manage residential homes for the vulnerable, the old or the sick – it's with those people, such as you, where the buck stops.
"Those who are wilfully negligent with serious consequences should expect to go to prison. That is the message which should go out today."
Abridged
SOURCE: TelegraphUK
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