A DEMENTIA care assistant in Northern Ireland who took “demeaning" photos and videos of her patients has been sentenced.
Ciara Corvan, of Cathedral View in Armagh, was sentenced at Craigavon Crown Court yesterday (July 27) for seven counts of ill treatment of patients under the Mental Health Order (NI) 1986.
The 28-year-old was sentenced to a two-year probation order and has been ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.
The court heard that Corvan was working at the Bluestone Unit of Craigavon Area Hospital in 2023 when she took photos and videos of the patients which she later posted on social media apps with offensive comments.
Police received a referral from the Southern Health & Social Care Trust in August of that year raising adult safeguarding concerns involving a vulnerable patient group at the Bluestone Hospital Dementia Unit.
Corvan had been reported for photographing and recording vulnerable patients on her mobile phone and posting these videos and photos via a social media messaging app with what has been described as “degrading commentary”.
An investigation was launched by Detectives from the PSNI’s Public Protection Branch and Social Workers from the Southern Health & Social Care Trust.
Ciara Corvan has been sentenced at Craigavon Court HouseWhen police seized Corvan’s mobile phone for forensic examination they discovered additional victims.
“All victims lacked the capacity to consent to any photographs that were taken and Corvan had been trusted by both her employer and the family of those concerned to not only care for them but to treat them with dignity and respect,” a PSNI spokesperson confirmed.
Corvan’s prosecution is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, “in terms of the ill treatment of patients via degrading photography/videos/commentary”, the PSNI said.
The police force will now use this sentencing as “an example for people in positions of trust working with vulnerable people to be deterred from ever taking advantage of someone in their care in this way,” they said. “It is criminal behaviour,” they add.
“The victims in this case are some of the most vulnerable in our society and were always at the centre of this investigation,” the PSNI’s Detective Chief Inspector Claire McDonald said.
“They and their families depended on former Health Care Assistant Ciara Corvan to take care of them and they trusted that she maintained their health and their dignity as part of her care role. She did not.
“The victims were subjected to degrading and mocking behaviour.
“Corvan took photographs and video recorded her victims on her mobile phone and then shared the imaging with degrading comments via a social media messaging app,” she added.
“Corvan exploited their vulnerabilities, specifically their lack of capacity and communication for her own entertainment.
“Today her actions are proven criminal, in the first case of its kind for Northern Ireland.
“Vulnerable adults in need of protection are supported in a manner which upholds their rights, in particular their right to equal access to the criminal justice system and to prevent further abuse through a collaborative multi-agency partnership.
“I want to thank the families for their unwavering support and patience during this complex investigation and for being their loved ones voice throughout the safeguarding and criminal justice process.”
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the families of the victims said they were “grateful to the police and prosecution for their thorough work in bringing this case to justice”.
They added: “Our relatives were private, kind individuals who could not speak for themselves in their final years, and what was done to them was a gross violation of their basic human rights.
“While no sentence can undo the harm, we are grateful for the acknowledgement that this type of behaviour is indeed criminal conduct and that justice can be served against those who mock and torment the vulnerable.
“Every caregiver must be held to the highest standard of trust,” they added.
“She (Corvan) sought entertainment in humiliating those who were being tormented every day through the slow and cruel loss of their ability to do even the most basic personal tasks.
“At a point when our loved ones depended on her to support them in making it through their final days, she not only chose to mock and degrade them but then distributed it through social media.
“She took advantage of the fact that our family members were suffering from a disease that meant they could not even communicate what they had endured.
“We now live every day with the thoughts that our loved ones had no way of saying or showing how much of the fear or the pain that she caused lingered with them until their final days.
“We are saddened by the seemingly lack of morals in this social media generation and hope that this sentencing today makes people stop and think about their conduct online and how they treat people.
“It has been shown today that this is criminal behaviour.
“If you are in a position of trust and care and not taking that position seriously, heed this warning.
“Please stop and think – if that was your mother or father, how would you want them to be treated?”
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