‘Missed opportunities’ before nursing home rape – review

A man caught allegedly raping a woman with dementia at a nursing home had shown concerning behaviour in the days leading to the attack, a review found.

Staff walked in on the man, who had an alcohol-related brain injury, when he was on top of the woman in her room in the Liverpool home in August 2022.

A recent review by Liverpool Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) said the man was arrested but was not prosecuted as he lacked capacity.

The review raised questions about the decision to place him in a mixed sex facility and noted his care plan has not been re-examined despite him touching a staff member inappropriately, harassing a resident and entering the victim’s room on a previous occasion.

The man, referred to as Kenneth in the review, was placed in the home for assessment after a hospital stay on a 28-day basis.

However, social workers and hospital staff had shared “incomplete information” in a handover to the care home manager.

This included not informing the home that Kenneth had been under one-to-one observation at hospital due to his “challenging” behaviour.

Kenneth’s family also told police that a social worker had advised them not to share everything they knew about his “violent and aggressive” past behaviour because then adult social care teams would “struggle” to find him a placement.

The review said it had been unable to confirm who made the comment but described it as “unfortunate”.

A brokerage team from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust were tasked with finding somewhere for Kenneth to be discharged from, it said.