Carer incited patients to fight

The manager of a care home has been told she will face a jail term for an "abhorrent" reign of terror over patients in a home. Diane Butler's "despicable" staff - ill-treated mentally and physically patients in their care. One carer tried to stage a fight between a Down's Syndrome patient and another resident with autism. Butler, 47, of St Loys Road, Haringey, north London, was found guilty of one count of wilful neglect.

She insisted she never suspected anything was wrong at the home - but the five-man, seven-woman jury, which spent nine hours considering the evidence, decided she was lying. In another incident two black members of staff laughed as they encouraged one white resident to hurl racist abuse at another, London's Snaresbrook Court was told.

All of the staff were arrested after being secretly filmed by a colleague. Butler was found guilty of a count of wilful neglect after she failed to take action when she was told a patient had been left in the care of a student nurse during a bus trip. She was cleared on another count, while a third was left on file after the jury failed to agree.

She was warned by Judge Alan Pardoe QC prison was a "real" possibility. Noleen Bailey, 31, from Haringey, Eulalee Hall, 51, from Highbury, north London, and Glendeen Nedda, 36, of Fulbourne Road, Walthamstow, east London may now face sentencing. They admitted six counts of ill-treating patients and one of wilful neglect.

Det Sgt Paul Kingdon said: "These care workers have deliberately taken advantage of those who were supposed to be in their 'care'. "It is abhorrent that they have sought to humiliate these residents, who are particularly vulnerable due to their severe learning difficulties. This appears to have been done purely for their own amusement."

Prosecutor Janine Sheff said during the trial there was no suggestion Butler ill-treated the patients herself. The home was run by run by residential care home group Craegmoor plc for Islington and Camden Council. The three patients suffering abuse were all women. Jurors were told Hall had called one of them a "fat bitch".

But the most serious example was an incident where Hall tormented one patient, urging her to kick another. She demonstrated the action, urging the woman "beat her up".