A care worker who was sacked over a post on her Facebook calling Muslims ‘fanatical bigots’ has won a case for unfair dismissal, but has been given no payout. Linda Henderson was sacked after bosses at Ashgill Care Home in Glasgow discovered posts of her social media Muslims should ‘go back to [their] own country’. Other posts on her Facebook said there were ‘no decent honest Muslims’ and that the Scottish Government should focus on jobs for ‘our own kind’. She won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the care home refused to consider a letter from her son claiming he posted the comments Her Facebook page named her employer, and she was found to have breached their social media policy. Ms Henderson admitted to writing the post railing against immigration but denied posting the statement about Muslims, claiming it was written by her son. But managers didn’t believe the claims and Ms Henderson was later sacked. She won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the care home refused to consider a letter from her son claiming he posted the comments. Employment judge Robert King said Ms Henderson’s ‘culpable and blameworthy conduct in breaching the respondent’s social media policy was the sole cause of her dismissal’. He added it was ‘just and equitable to reduce her award by 100 per cent’. The tribunal heard that Ms Henderson began working at the care home in November 2015 as an activities co-ordinator. In January 2019, her manager, Rosemary Jalloh, received an anonymous text which contained screenshots from her Facebook page dating back to September 2014. One post stated: ‘Alex Salmond wants MORE IMMIGRANTS? ‘We can’t feed and support our own kind as it is we don’t NEED more immigrants we need jobs with decent wages for our OWN kind.’ The other read: ‘Why are the ‘SO CALLED DECENT MUSLIMS’ allowing their own kind to cause and create terrorism? ‘The answer is there are no DECENT HONEST MUSLIMS. ‘They are all fanatical bigots and it’s time we stood up to them and tell them THIS IS OUR COUNTRY. ‘IF YOU DON’T LIKE OUR LAWS THEN LEAVE. ‘GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY.’ Ms Jalloh saw Ms Henderson had named the care home as her employer on the site and found the posts breached the home’s social media policy. Ms Henderson appealed the decision and offered a letter from her son claiming he had written the post – but bosses refused to consider it as it had been presented too late. Judge King found this was an error and the letter should have been considered.
August 4, 2020
A healthcare assistant who admitted raping a 73-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s in an Irish nursing home has been given an 11-year sentence. The victim was attacked in her room in the early hours of 3 April, during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown. She was found in a distressed state later that morning by a staff member. Emmanuel Adeniji, of Royal Canal Court, Kilcock in County Kildare, had denied rape but later pleaded guilty after his DNA matched a sample from the victim. The 52-year-old worked in healthcare for 15 years before the attack and he had no previous convictions. The judge at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court described the rape as “an egregious breach of trust by a qualified and experienced healthcare worker”.
March 2, 2020
Law firm of the year Philip Lee has appointed Thomas O’Malley as a partner in the Dublin firm’s real estate department. O’Malley previously served as real estate partner at McDowell Purcell, now part of European law firm Fieldfisher, and more recently as managing partner at Tully Rinckey’s Dublin office. Thomas O’Malley is a specialist in commercial real estate with a focus on social housing and property development. He acts for investment funds, property developers, housing and government bodies on large-scale, mixed retail, commercial, and residential projects, as well as advising on the property elements of renewable energy projects. Thomas O’Malley holds an LLB from Trinity College Dublin and is a qualified CEDR mediator.
June 3, 2019
Video has surfaced of a 92-year-old mother confessing to shooting her 72-year-old son dead after he threatened to put her in a nursing home. Anna Mae Blessing was arrested last year for shooting her son Thomas dead. Blessing, who dies in November in hospice care while awaiting trial, says in a video interview with police that she had two guns stashed inside her dressing gown. She told police that as Thomas came towards her she fired multiple rounds at her only son. “I can’t remember the calibre, it was a good size one,” she said. “I backed up and I pulled the trigger, and it broke the mirror and I don’t know what I did. Then Tom was going to come at me again so I pulled the trigger … I’m sure the second round hit him.”
March 22, 2019
A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on a misdemeanour assault charge after he was accused of groping a woman in home hospice care while giving her last rites.
March 13, 2019
Professor Stephen Hawking’s nurse has been struck off for failures over his care and financial misconduct. Patricia Dowdy, 61, who worked for the renowned scientist for 15 years, was handed an interim suspension in 2016, it emerged at the weekend. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has now found she did not “provide the standards of good, professional care we expect and Professor Hawking deserved”. Mrs Dowdy said she was upset and did not want to comment. The NMC made its decision to remove Mrs Dowdy, from Ipswich, from the nursing register at a private hearing in London. A fitness to practise panel said Mrs Dowdy’s behaviour amounted to financial misconduct, dishonesty, not providing appropriate care, failing to cooperate with the NMC and not having the correct qualifications. Matthew McClelland, director of fitness to practise, said: “As the public rightly expects, in serious cases such as this – where a nurse has failed in their duty of care and has not been able to give evidence to the panel that they have learned from their mistakes and be fit to practise – we will take action. “We have remained in close contact with the Hawking family throughout this case and I am grateful to them – as they approach the anniversary of Professor Hawking’s death – and others for sharing their concerns with us. A family spokesman said Prof Hawking’s family was “relieved this traumatic ordeal has now concluded and that as a result of the verdict, others will not have to go through what they suffered from this individual”. “They want to thank the NMC for their thorough investigation,” he added. Prof Hawking died at his home in Cambridge in March last year aged 76 having lived with motor neurone disease for more than 50 years.
March 11, 2019
A nurse who worked for Stephen Hawking for 15 years has been suspended in a secret tribunal over allegations of ‘serious’ misconduct concerning his care. The scientist’s immediate family had lodged a complaint which prompted a long investigation into 61-year-old Patricia Dowdy. But details of the case, and the nature of the disciplinary charges against Mrs Dowdy, have been suppressed by the body which regulates nursing. The public and the media have been banned from the hearing in a move that will prompt renewed concerns about a shift towards ‘secret justice’. Because of the severity of the allegations against her, which have never been made public, Mrs Dowdy was suspended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) when the claims came to light. The ‘substantive’ hearing that will ultimately decide her fate is now ongoing – but is being held behind closed doors. And it is likely that the charges will never be publicly disclosed. It is understood that the nurse, from Ipswich, Suffolk, stopped working for Hawking at least two years before he succumbed to motor neurone disease in March last year, aged 76. When a reporter turned up at the NMC in Stratford, East London, he was denied entry and told that Mrs Dowdy’s ‘fitness-to-practise’ hearing, due to end later this month, was private. Later, the NMC said a secrecy order was granted because of Mrs Dowdy’s ‘health’, but declined to elaborate further. Asked about the allegations at her home yesterday, Mrs Dowdy said: ‘This is all very upsetting. Can I just say “no comment” at the moment? I’m not supposed to talk to anyone.’ A source with knowledge of the case said the charges against the nurse were ‘pretty serious’ but declined to discuss the matter further. In 2004, ten nurses who had cared for Hawking accused his second wife, Elaine Mason, of abusing him. It is not known if Mrs Dowdy was among those who made statements to police or if that case is connected to the ongoing hearing. At the time it emerged that the author of A Brief History Of Time was repeatedly taken to hospital with unexplained injuries, such as a broken wrist, gashes to the face and a cut lip, that left his family concerned for his safety. Both he and Mrs Mason denied the allegations and police took no action. Last night, MPs and campaigners reacted with dismay to the decision to hold disciplinary hearings in secret. Independent MP John Woodcock, who helped his constituents fight for NMC hearings into midwives implicated in the needless deaths of babies at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria, warned the secrecy could increase the risk of a further tragedy. He said: ‘It is deeply concerning that the NMC is seeking to reduce transparency.’ And open justice campaigner John Hemming added: ‘Justice in the dark is never proper justice. If you want people to have confidence in the regulator, then justice needs to be done – and seen to be done.’ Prof Hawking had been confined to a wheelchair since the age of 30 and was attended to by a rota of private nurses and carers paid for by Cambridge University, where he was a mathematics professor.
March 6, 2019
A pensioner has been charged with stalking a retirement housing association employee over the course of a three year period. Robert Entwistle is alleged to have engaged in a course of conduct likely to cause the woman fear and alarm by sending her numerous unwanted communications via letters and online at Greenlaw and in Duns between January 1, 2016, and January 1, 2019. The 69-year-old of Priorwood Court, Melrose, pleaded not guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court to the stalking charge. A trial has been fixed for May 16 with an intermediate hearing on April 29.
