A senior care worker at a Deal residential home will not go to prison for treating a defenceless patient “like a dog”.

Cruel Jenny Bushell had faced a possible five year term for the horrific abuse she dished out to the mentally ill woman.

But a judge has ruled she shouldn’t have to serve a single day in prison – despite shoving a faeces-stained flannel into the mouth of her terrified victim.

Instead, Bushell, 59, of Quern Road, escaped with a six month sentence suspended for two years – after being convicted of twice ill-treating a vulnerable patient.

And she won’t even have to pay a penny towards the £4200 cost of the trial at Canterbury Crown Court in July.

“Afterwards, I was frightened because I had never seen something so nasty and aggressive as Jenny did that day” - Lian Cavell

One of her former colleagues at Homeleigh Residential Home in Sondes Road had told the jury: “I had never seen something so nasty and aggressive.”

The court heard that since her convictions she had lost a new job after telling her employers of the case.

Her lawyer Kieran Moroney said she had to sell her family home, had been “vilified by her local community” and will never work in the care service again.

But he told Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl that despite the jury’s verdicts she was still “in denial” and refuses to accept she was cruel.

During the trial, the jury heard from two colleagues who reported the ill-treatment when Bushell was in charge.

Lian Cavell had told how she saw Bushell push a faeces-stained flannel into the mouth of the patient.

She said that Bushell also made the terrified resident stand against a wall “like a prisoner” with her arms out-stretched.

Ms Cavell wept as she remembered: “Afterwards, I was frightened because I had never seen something so nasty and aggressive as Jenny did that day.”

She said the resident was regarded as a “vulnerable adult” at the home in June last year.

She told how she had gone to get her ready just after 8am when Bushell, who was in charge on that Sunday, came into the room “like a bull in a china shop”.

Ms Cavell continued: “She went to the patient and started shouting: ‘Get the f*** out of bed’ and dragging her.

“She had hold of her arm and leg and spun her around saying: ‘Get out of bed you f***** lazy b****. You are disgusting’.

“I was standing near a wardrobe. I was absolutely gobsmacked and shocked," she added.

“You want to act like an animal then I will treat you like an animal and shower you like a dog” - Bushell

Bushell then washed the resident so hard she left marks as she pressed down on her skin and then cleaned her teeth with such force it drew “what looked to me like blood” from her mouth.

Ms Cavell said a second incident took place the same day when the woman – who was incontinent – soiled herself.

She was taken to the shower room, where Bushell made her have a cold shower telling her: “You want to act like an animal then I will treat you like an animal and shower you like a dog.”

Ms Cavell said that Bushell then put a soiled flannel in the woman’s mouth, adding: “The resident was petrified. She ran back to her room afterwards like a frightened little girl.”

Carer Jane Athaide told the jury how in the afternoon she heard shouting coming from the shower room.

"It was Jenny shouting and I went in because I thought maybe she needed help."

She said that she heard Bushell tell the patient she would treat her like a dog after turning on the cold shower.

"She was shouting: 'You are not a woman, you are a dog'

"I froze. I had never seen anything like that before. I was in shock. I had never seen that before.

"I couldn't speak. I just froze. I was in total shock. I wish that I had said something but I just couldn't speak."

The judge ordered Bushell to wear an electronic tag for four months preventing her from leaving her home between 7pm and 5am.

He told her: “On this day you lost your temper and lost your usual control and it resulted in a woman being injured.”

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