Care home owner and manager are fined £146,000 after convicted rapist sexually assaulted dementia-hit fellow resident, 75, weeks after staff were told of his ‘brutal’ past

• Robert Carpenter was able to mix with dementia residents at Raleigh Court, Hull
• That was despite lengthy prison sentence for beating and raping woman in 1979
• Katie Daysley was informed of his past weeks earlier, but failed to take action
• Victim had enjoyed a happy and ‘faithful’ marriage of more than 50 years
• Her husband feels ‘total disgust and anger’ he was able to commit horrible act

A care home owner and manager have been fined £146,000 after a convicted rapist sexually assaulted a dementia resident weeks after staff were informed of his ‘brutal’ criminal past.

Robert Carpenter, 66, was able to mix with dementia residents at Raleigh Court, run by the Humberside Independent Care Association (HICA), despite having previous convictions dating back to 1968 – including serving a lengthy prison sentence for beating and raping a woman as she walked to work in 1979.

Katie Daysley, the manager of the care home, has also been ordered to pay more than £16,000 after she failed to protect the resident when she was informed that Carpenter was on the sex offenders register and had a history of violence and drug taking weeks before the attack in June 2018.

HICA’s admissions policy stated that people with a history of criminal sexual offences should not be admitted to its homes, but Carpenter was able to remain at the facility because the provider did not have an effective admissions policy, nor did it carry out a full and thorough risk assessment.

The care home pleaded guilty to failing to safeguard the resident from abuse and improper treatment, causing her avoidable harm under the Health and Social Care Act.

Daysley, 41, of Kirk Ella, denied a similar charge but was found guilty following a two-day trial at Beverley Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Robert Carpenter, 66, was able to mix with dementia residents at the care home despite having previous convictions dating back to 1968

Katie Daysley (pictured outside Beverley Magistrates’ Court last month) failed to take adequate action after being informed that a convicted rapist was living at the care home she managed

Raleigh Court care home (pictured), run by the Humberside Independent Care Association, was fined 

Robert Carpenter sexually abused a dementia sufferer in the care home where they both lived – three months after staff were informed of his ‘brutal’ past

The court heard that Raleigh Court, in Cambridge Street, provides care to older people – many of whom live with dementia or lack mental capacity.

The victim had been living in the home since August 2017.

Carpenter, who did not lack capacity, had been a resident since January 2018 when he was placed in the home by Hull City Council as an ’emergency placement’ after he suffered burns in an ‘electrical incident’ at his home.

Three months later, social worker Claire Stewart discovered that he had served three jail terms with convictions for criminal damage, assault, wounding, grievous bodily harm and sexual assaults.

In March 1979, he had targeted a woman walking home from work, forcing a scarf into her mouth to stop her screaming before breaking her jaw, raping her and throwing her over a fence. 

He was arrested in 2009 following a cold case review of forensic evidence and later jailed for 18 months.

The social worker immediately informed Daysley of his full criminal history, realising there was a strong ‘public interest’ concern.

But Daysley failed to carry out a full risk assessment or implement ‘adequate mitigating steps’ to deal with the ‘very clear risk’. She left her job in May 2018, a month before Carpenter’s ‘serious sex assault’.

After six months living in the home, and five days after it was visited by a police officer checking up on him, Carpenter was found committing the sex assault.

He was later convicted for an offence of engaging in sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder and jailed for seven and a half years.

At his court case a judge said Carpenter knew ‘fullwell’ his victim lacked capacity, and told him: ‘You took full advantage of that for your own sexual gratification.’

The victim had enjoyed a happy and ‘faithful’ marriage of more than 50 years before her husband took the agonising decision to place her in a care home as her dementia worsened.

Alison Chilton, head of the Care Quality Commission’s adult social care inspection, said: ‘This is a really distressing case and our sympathies are with the family. It’s vital that health and social are organisations have adequate systems and processes in place to protect people from any kind of harm or abuse as everyone has the right to be kept safe while living in and receiving care.

‘This was not the case at HICA and the provider and manager failed in their legal duty to protect this vulnerable person. 

‘The home has since put in place a new policy to protect people and they must ensure this is fully embedded to keep people safe and make sure they are not at risk of harm or abuse.

Carpenter had 48 offences on his record dating back to 1968. These included the brutal rape of a stranger on a desolate footpath in Scunthorpe 40 years ago

‘I hope this prosecution reminds HICA and other care providers of their duty to assess and manage all risks to ensure people are kept safe.’

The victim’s husband previously said he will never forgive those who made his wife ‘easy prey for a monster’.

He added: ‘This should never have been allowed to happen and nothing like this must ever be allowed to happen again. 

‘I made the hardest decision of my life to put my wife and one true love into a care home, and for this to have happened to her is absolutely heartbreaking.

‘I feel utter and total disgust and anger that a man such as this was allowed to commit such a horrible act on my poor wife, in what was supposedly a safe environment. 

‘She was the love of my life and she was left as easy prey for a monster who should never have been allowed anywhere near her alone.’

The victim and Carpenter have since both died. 

Following the incident, HICA has put in place a new management of offenders policy which details processes the home must follow if someone has a history of offences.

Prior to the hearing, Hull City Council agreed to pay damages to the woman’s husband for its own failings.

The victim’s husband added: ‘It is simply beyond belief that a convicted rapist was able to mix with the most vulnerable of people.

‘Everybody involved at the council in terms of the decision to put him in the home and leave him there, and at the home when they found out about his past, I hold responsible.

‘That monster was left to be alone with my wife. We know what happened to her, but we don’t know that she was his only victim given he was in the home for a month. People like that don’t only do this once in isolation.’

Both HICA and Daysley were sentenced on Friday at the magistrates’ court. 

HICA was fined £128,000 and ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge and £10,645 costs to the Care Quality Commission, which brought the prosecution.

Daysley was ordered to pay £1,000, £15,067 costs, and a victim surcharge of £100.

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