Bosses Of Indian 'Slave' Who Was Repeatedly Raped And Beaten Convicted

A cruel boss, who repeatedly raped an Indian domestic servant, who was used and abused by him as a “sexual toy” and by two women as a “general dogsbody” have been convicted.

The 39 year-old vulnerable and illiterate mother-of-four became a virtual slave of the family for six years, despite repeated complaints to the police and social services.

She was also scalded with boiling water, burned with a hot iron, beaten and threatened that if she complained her throat would be cut and her body buried in a back garden, Croydon Crown Court heard.

She worked sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, between October 2004 and October 2010, which even at a minimum wage rate should have seen her paid £172,288. In reality she received just £2,364.

Butcher Enkarta Balapovi, 53, (pic.top) of Charlbert Street, St. John's Wood was convicted of five counts of rape.

Optician Shashi Obhrai, 53, (pic.mid.) of Pembroke Road, Northwood was convicted of causing actual bodily harm and threatening to kill the victim.

Secretary Shamina Yousuf, 33, (pic.bottom) of Pavilion Way, Edgware was convicted of causing actual bodily harm.

All three will be sentenced on May 16.

After the verdicts the victim said: “They have treated me so badly that I worry at night that they will come for me.

“When I think of Salim (Balapovi) I feel like my wounds are reopened. I can't move on - he raped me.

“Shashi Obhrai put a hot iron on my arm when I asked her for my earnings to be paid.

"These people are dangerous they have ruined my life and kept me away from my children. Each should be punished for their wrongdoings."

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Sumner of the Trafficking and Prostitution Unit, said: "This victim came to the UK to earn enough money to provide her children back in India with a better life, but instead the defendants made her own life a living hell for over three years.

"She is deeply traumatised yet found the courage to seek help and face her abusers in court because she does not want these people to able to hurt anyone else."

Prosecutor Miss Caroline Haughey told the jury: "Each of these defendants have collectively and severally taken advantage of her, abusing her in their own way and when she either becomes a threat or a nuisance is passed on to the next party until she is no longer wanted.

"Their view of her has resulted in a prolonged and continued abuse of her.

"Each of the defendants knew of her lack of education, expectation and awareness both in the U.K. and India and used that to get her to comply with their wishes whether as a domestic worker, sexual toy or general dogsbody."

The court heard the victim was never paid her promised wage, had her passport confiscated, was fed scraps and leftovers, including food spat out by the defendant Obhrai's children, and slept in a garage and on the floors of various properties.

"Each of these defendants treated her with contempt, ignoring her basic rights and taking advantage of her naivety, her vulnerability and her ignorance," explained Miss Haughey.

"Tragically various state agencies failed her too, ignoring her repeated pleas for help, not adhering to their own investigative practices, and it could be said ignoring the obvious."

The family successfully applied for a visa, allowing the victim to work in the U.K., promised to pay her £480 per month and she moved into the Pavilion Way address with Yousuf, her husband and their child.

"She slept in the garage or on the floor of the child's room…..She was expected to wash, cook and clean for the family and be at their beck and call.

"Yousuf was short-tempered and aggressive with her," added Miss Haughey. "She recalls being beaten around the head, causing her ears to bleed, and Yousuf poured boiling water over her hands and forbid her to receive any medical treatment."

When Yousuf threw a cup at the victim, causing a two inch cut to her foot, she was arrested, but the husband threatened her into dropping the allegation and the police did not pursue the complaints she made to them.

After two years and eight months with the couple, who paid just £24 for that period, the victim escaped with the help of a Pakistani stranger at a supermarket.

Desperate to get her passport back she agreed to move in with Balapovi and his wife, where she massaged their legs and feet and was forced to work for £2-per hour at a sandwich shop downstairs.

"It was while at this address she was subjected to a catalogue of sexual assaults by Balapovi," said Miss Haughey, explaining the first incident involved the defendant ripping off the victim's pyjamas and raping her on the only bed in the flat.

"She describes how this happened repeatedly, usually on weekends, Mondays and Tuesdays. She says it happened for: 'As long as I lived in the house'."

After four months with the couple the victim was assisted by a charity and her rape complaints reported to the police, but she was then handed over to Obhrai and her ordeal continued.

Her daily routine included cooking for eight people, washing, cleaning, looking after Obhrai's sick mother and enduring beatings, hair pulling and threats at the hands of the defendant - eventually leaving her no option but to attempt suicide by slashing her wrists.

She was hospitalised after being pushed down a flight of stairs, struck with a rolling pin, burned with a hot iron and suffered stomach cramps and vomiting when forced to eat out of date food, the jury were told.

Again the victim fled and reported the abuse to police, but no action was taken and the beatings continued, with Obhrai threatening to slit her throat and bury her in the back garden.

Eventually she contacted the charity Kalayaan, which campaigns for justice for migrant workers, who referred her to the U.K. Human Trafficking Centre and an investigation began.

Fake Cancer Conwoman Jailed For £20K School Scam

A primary school teaching assistant, who tricked her friends and work colleagues into believing she had terminal brain cancer in a £20,000 scam, has been jailed for eighteen months.

Mother-of-four Ursula Rose, 42, (pic.top) had a fundraiser to finance private Harley Street treatment and concerned colleagues plunged themselves into debt by taking out loans or withdrawing money from their own childrens' accounts to help.

"You were very much admired by your colleagues and they believed you when you said you had a brain tumour," Croydon Crown Court Judge Jeremy Gold QC told her. 

"This was a gross betrayal of their trust. Good people with the best of intentions were completely taken in by your lies.

"You even forged documents to continue your fraud and your fraud, I'm afraid to say, must be categorised as calculated and wicked.

"It makes it all the more sad that you used your effervescent personality to deceive those who trusted you."

Rose, of 32 Westgate Road, South Norwood - who worked at the local Saint Thomas Becket school (pic.bottom) - denied she invented the illness, claiming the victims volunteered to help her through money troubles, even describing her self as the victim of a "witch hunt."

Prosecutor Miss claire Robinson told the court: "The Crown allege that Ursula Rose repeatedly made false representations to friends and work colleagues that she was suffering from cancer, that she had tumours in her head.

"She did this to get their sympathy, to get loans of money from them. This was dishonest and calculated to make people feel sorry for her.

"Over a number of years she repeatedly told friends and colleagues that she was severely ill with cancer and she was doing it in order to gain money from people."

Fellow teaching assistant Gillian Trype (pic.mid.) gave the defendant £3,000 after Rose convinced her she feared dying on the operating theatre table during a £37,000 private operation and felt her husband would not cope financially.

"She told her and others that the brain tumours were growing aggressively and she was going for daily chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

"She was told by Ursula Rose that one of the tumours was wrapped around a main artery near her temple and it could kill her at any moment.

"She said it was terminal and at level four and she needed an operation that was too dangerous for the NHS so was paying thirty-seven thousand pounds to go private.

"Mrs Trype's two daughters had money in their savings and she borrowed that, intending to repay it with a lump sum from her pension," explained Miss Robinson.

Rose took time off work for the non-existent 'operation' and when she returned told colleagues it had been partially successful, but a £7,000 American wonder drug could combat the remaining life-threatening tumour.

In June, 2009 staff attended a fundraiser at Croydon's Bar Txt, contributing to a collection aimed at raising money for the new drug.

Another member of staff, Allison Patmore, gave Rose £6,500 as a deposit on a £40,000 private Harley Street operation - again claiming it was too dangerous for the NHS.

Mrs Patmore took out a £6,200 loan, plus £300 cash from her bank account, accepting Rose's claim she would be repaid when her home was remortgaged.

Rose told long-time friend Michelle Willis she had only six months to live and needed a strong dose of radiotherapy - knowing her pal had money remaining from a recent house sale.

Mrs Willis gave her £5,000 and a few weeks later Rose asked for another £5,500 to avoid her home being repossessed. The friend convinced her own daughter, Sarah, to give Rose the money.

Eventually the school's headmaster, Noel Campbell, received confirmation from Rose's doctor at Mayday University hospital that she never had cancer.

"He said she did not, and never had, brain tumours, but suffered from tension-like headaches."

Rose then resigned in February, 2010, telling the headmaster she had been given the cancer all-clear and was cured.

During the trial Rose stuck by her denials, telling the jury: "I never said I needed an operation or that I needed money for a special operation in America. I don't know why my work colleagues would say that.

"It seemed like a bit of a witch hunt," complained Rose. "I never sent texts to anyone, saying my cancer was terminal."

The court heard Rose had serious financial problems and after remortgaging her family home in 2007 was left with monthly payments that increased from £800 to £2,000 per month.

Her lawyer Mr. Christopher Bertham said: "Mrs Rose expresses shame and regret and has asked me to say that to the court, and she is sorry for her behaviour.

"At the time she was operating under not only financial stress, but she was stressed gravely about her state of health as well.

"There is no doubt that the fears and concerns that she had were real enough, but her expression of the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis that she told her colleagues did not reflect the truth."

She was convicted of four counts of fraud, by falsely representing that she had a life-threatening illness, on various dates between September 30, 2008 and July 31, 2009.

Compensation proceedings to collect £15,000 owed to her victims have begun.

Five Years Is Just The Tonic For Liquid Cocaine Smuggler

A Wolverhampton teenager, caught at Gatwick Airport trying to smuggle £160,000 worth of liquid cocaine inside bottles of tonic, has been locked-up for five years.

Neiko Nicholas Dinham, 19, of Willenhall Road had just stepped off a flight from Jamaica when he was stopped by officers from the UK Border Agency.

He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) to importing 583 gms of 43% pure cocaine on February 2.

Prosecutor Mr. Julius Capon told the court Dinham was stopped because his luggage was heavier on arrival at Gatwick than the weight recorded on departure from Montego Bay – indicating what customs describe as a “rip in.”

The smuggling operation involved corrupt baggage handlers adding the tonic bottles to Dinham's luggage after he checked-in.

Dinham claimed he did not visit Jamaica intending to return with cocaine, but bowed to pressure from drug smugglers once on the island.

Care Assistant Gets Ten Months For Cruelty To Mentally Ill OAP's

An abusive care assistant, who sparked a mass cover-up at a home for the mentally-ill after a shocked "whistleblower" - who witnessed systematic cruelty - reported him to social services, was jailed for ten months yesterday.

Police found potentially incriminating documents and official paperwork had been shredded at Bromley's Lauriston House, a seventy-bed residential home for mainly elderly residents suffering dementia, brain damage and other serious disabilities.

Care assistant Marc Harwood, 44, (pic.top) of Howard Way, Bromley denied ill-treating a 92 year-old one-legged female dementia sufferer and two other elderly residents at the home in Bickley Park Road, Bickley.

"The position at the care home was not a happy one and you will hear from care assistant Niluka Ralalage, (pic.bottom) who became shocked at some of the practices going on," prosecutor Mr. Matthew Farmer told the Croydon Crown Court jury.

"She was shocked at the rough treatment and abuse Mr. Harwood meted out to the patients and it is sad to say the management ignored what she told them.

"You could call her a whistleblower and she went to Bromley social services and the subsequent enquiry found the home's management were uncooperative and a lot of documents had been destroyed and shredded.

"Thirteen members of staff were suspended and dismissed, including the manager and assistant manager, and some of the nursing staff were reported to their disciplinary body.

"The culture that was prevalent at the home was one of abuse and neglect."

The court heard 92 year-old Molly Gravenell, who has had one of her legs amputated and is immobile, was being moved from her bed to a wheelchair by Harwood.

"She was being hoisted from her bed and Mr. Harwood was getting angry with her for not bending her remaining leg. It was rigid and fixed, which did happen sometimes.

"He began shouting in Molly's face: 'Bend your bloody leg' and when Niluka intervened told her: 'You're new, you don't know these people, she's a drama queen.'

"His face was twisted and Molly had tears in her eyes as he shouted at her: 'You just eat and sleep. You're a pain in the backside."

On another occasion Molly had a mysterious black eye after Harwood brought her breakfast. 

"He must have seen it and should have reported it so she could get care and attention," explained Mr. Farmer.

Another elderly resident, Cathleen Hill, who had suffered a brain tumour, a stroke and was paralysed down one side and was blind in one eye was being cleaned in her room by Harwood after soiling herself.

"Niluka saw that Mrs Hill was completely naked and Mr. Harwood was extremely angry, shouting: 'Look at this fucking woman. Look at what she's fucking done.'

"He told the resident: 'You're a pain in the backside, kill yourself, cut your throat.

"He said: 'I'm going to fuck you,' and had his thumb extended in front of her, moving it back and forth, simulating sex."

Brain-damaged resident Frank Lord, who was another stroke victim and paralysed down one side, had also soiled himself and was being cleaned by Harwood.

"He was handling him really roughly and flung his arm with a lot of force," explained Mr. Farmer. "Frank was screaming and seemed to be in a lot of pain.

"Mr. Harwood said: 'He's an idiot just a nuisance. He's paralysed, how can he feel pain? He's a drama queen.'

"The screaming continued with Mr. Harwood shouting: 'Don't fuck me or I'll fuck you back' and he slapped Frank really hard on the stomach."

Harwood also pretended he had fed patients when he had not and lied that he had taken them to the toilet and changed their incontinence pads, the jury heard.

Sri Lankan buddhist Miss Ralalage, who still works at the home, told the jury: "I treat the residents like my own parents or grandparents. I have become very close and attached to them."

Harwood was convicted of three counts of ill-treating each patient, wilfully neglecting Mrs Gravenell, assaulting Mr. Lord and wilfully neglecting other unnamed residents between February 1 and August 12, last year.

UK Border Agency Worker In "Lucrative" Immigration Plot

A part-time UK Border Agency student visa case worker, who plotted with two accomplices to by-pass immigration rules on "a vast scale", dumped incriminating files over his back garden fence when his bosses raided his home, a court heard yesterday.

Civil servant Waseem Majid, 35, of Chestnut Rise, Woolwich had more immigration files stashed in his garden shed, Mercedes car and bedroom and was offering an illegal cash service to break the visa rules, Croydon Crown Court was told.

"These three defendants were at various times agreeing to circumvent immigration law," prosecutor Mr. Tony Badenoch told the jury. "Majid was at the head of it and had access to information and the opportunity to take that material away from work for criminal purposes."

Majid has pleaded not guilty along with Muhammed Qadiri, 53, of Regent Gardens, Ilford and Sanam Mia, 43, of Ancona Road, Woolwich to conspiring to facilitate a breach of UK immigration law on or before January 5, last year.

Majid, who was employed at Croydon's Lunar House, has also pleaded not guilty to misconduct in public office on or before August 28, 2011 - the day his home was raided by the UK Border Agency.

"He did things way, way, way outside his remit, things that were criminal and Majid was doing this on a vast scale," explained Mr. Badenoch. "He was not just taking home his own files, but everyone else's.

"When his home was visited a brown Mercedes was parked outside and when officers entered they noticed his wife looked nervous and kept glancing toward the back garden.

"Located in a garden next-door was a mass of confidential UK Border Agency documentation in bags and there were more in the shed, his bedroom and the Mercedes.

"He had taken the documentation home for criminal purposes, we say, and texts from Qadiri and Mia found on a phone also dumped in the bag contained biographical details of people for criminal purposes."

Qadiri's home was raided five months later. 

"He was defensive and said if his children were woken he would report it to his MP," said Mr. Badenoch. "Officers found a man hiding in the loft and confiscated a passport, mobile phone and immigration papers."

Texts Mia sent Majid contained the details of eighteen visa applicants.

"They knew what Majid was all about, that is why they kept going to him. They knew going to Majid was the best way to sort out the visas, there was a service being provided that was criminal."

Investigators discovered Majid had written amounts of money , such as £500 and £1,000 next to the names of applicants he was dealing with. 

"It was not done for fun, it was lucrative," said Mr. Badenoch.

Trial continues…………

Businessman Billed Taxpayer For 60,000 Miles In Taxis During £176,000 Four-Year Scam

A partially-sighted escort agency boss illegally pocketed almost £176,000 in benefits, including a massive claim for approximately 60,000 miles in non-existent taxi rides under a government disability scheme.

Businessman Andrew Pishides, 39, billed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for daily 100 mile round-trip £180 fares for four years - supporting the claims with forged receipts.

"You must have lived very well for those four years," Harrow Crown Court Judge Jeremy Donne QC told Pishides, who ran 'Escort Emporium', 'Escort Solutions' and a letting agency for parking spaces called 'Park Let'.

"These offences reflect a moderately sophisticated and extremely persistent fraud that garnered you just shy of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds.

"The benefits represented an income of over forty thousand a year and in addition you had legitimate sources of twenty thousand a year, which would have been equivalent to a six-figure salary before tax."

Pishides, of Alexander House, Broadfields Way, Neasden was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for two years, placed on a twelve month supervision order with a three-month electronically-tagged evening curfew.

"Is it right that you should go to prison for four-and-a-half months? I confess I find this difficult," announced the judge. "I have a clear public duty to deal with people who commit offences like these, but on balance i am persuaded a prison sentence can be suspended."

Pishides pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception, namely £106,000 in access to work payments; £37,328 in housing benefit; £28, 637 in income support and evading a liability by deception, namely £3,874 in council tax.

DWP investigators mounted a surveillance operation, which confirmed their suspicions that Pishides did not travel from his home in north-west London to Wrotham in rural Kent three times a week to work as a software salesman.

The access to work scheme offers financial assistance with travel costs to those with disabilities.

He also failed to declare all of his bank accounts, his business income and part-ownership of a mortgage-free Lewisham flat.

Investigators discovered hundreds of pounds a week were being paid into Pishides' bank account from a large number of women who had signed-up to be his escorts.

The DWP are pursuing compensation under the Proceeds of Crime Act and are currently deducting £100 per month from Pishides' disability living allowance payments.

Pishides' lawyer Mr. James Maloney told the court: "The risk of re-conviction is low, the public is not at risk from the defendant. 

"His disability would make imprisonment more stressful and difficult than able-bodied defendants and he would be vulnerable to those in the system with more know-how than him."

Pishides suffers from a genetic eye condition, which restricts his field of vision to only 10% and he needs times four magnification in his right eye - his best - to see normally.

"He lost a lot of his life skills, his confidence, his self-esteem and did fall into some form of depression," added Mr. Maloney. "He is genuinely resourceful about this."

Judge Donne added: "He was pretty well off compared to a lot of people and it must have been apparent to him that what he was doing was quite egregious.

"What is the court to do with someone who commits offences on this scale for this period of time?

"However, it is a simple fact prison would be more difficult for someone with his difficulties and I have wrestled in my mind as to the correct sentence in this case."

Troubled Sixties Movie Star In Court Again

Fallen sixties movie star Iain Quarrier, who is banned from unsupervised contact with children after trying to abduct a screaming five year-old girl in a busy supermarket, called his neighbour a "bitch" after the woman reported him for approaching youngsters in the street.

The 71 year-old former 'It Boy' - a protege of legendary movie director Roman Polanski - found himself locked-up again after his neighbour tipped-off police and later gave evidence against him, resulting in a six-month prison sentence.

Pensioner Quarrier, of Chesterton Road, North Kensington, West London pleaded guilty yesterday to using threatening, abusive or insulting words outside his home, with intent to cause Joanne Reddan harassment, alarm or distress.

Alcohol and illness wrecked his promising career and he went from the glamour of the sixties movie world to being locked-up in Bethlem Mental Hospital in 1972.

Prosecutor Mr. Paul Mitchell told Hammersmith Magistrates' Court the pair had been neighbours for twelve years and Miss Reddan, who was leaving her home with her teenage child at around 3pm, had the confrontation with the defendant outside.

"I saw Iain Quarrier standing in the street and as I walked past with my child he said: 'Bitch'," she told police in a statement. "I was distressed and decided to ignore him."

She returned home two hours later and saw Quarrier again when she took out her rubbish. "Iain pointed at me and said: 'I'm going to kill her.'

"I went back inside and called the police," explained Miss Reddan. "After I gave evidence against him in January I did not think I would have to see him again."

The prosecution are also seeking a restraining order against Quarrier, who is facing eviction from the council property, which has been home since the 1980's.

He denies threatening to kill Miss Reddan and claims he is the victim of her malicious accusations.

Quarrier was bailed until May 9 for sentencing.

In 1996 he was cautioned by police for indecently assaulting two girls and in 2010 pleaded guilty to attempted abduction in Sainsbury's, Ladbroke Grove and was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and was made subject to a Prohibitive Activity Order, banning him from unsupervised contact with children under sixteen years-old.

Two weeks before the Sainsbury's offence Quarrier approached a nine year-old girl in the same supermarket and while holding out a twenty pound note said: "I'd like to buy you."

The attempted abduction involved a drunken Quarrier holding the five year-old girl tightly by the shoulder and dragging her towards the exit. 

He was directed by Polanski in 1967's 'Dance of the Vampires' and 'Cul-de-sac' (1968) following his big-screen debut in 1964's 'The Fledglings'.

Quarrier also appeared in the George Harrison-inspired psychedelic fantasy 'Wonderwall' in 1968 as well as Brit-flick 'Separation' in the same year.

Internet Perv Confesses To Over 10,000 Sick Pics

A paedophile today admitted having over 10,000 sick images of children at his suburban home and was effectively banned from the internet until he is sentenced.

First-time offender Barry Charles Smith, 63, of Anglesey Gardens, Carshalton also had hard-core pornography depicting people engaged in sexual acts with animals.

He pleaded guilty at his first appearance before Croydon Magistrates' Court to possessing 10,347 indecent images of children ranging from level one to level five – the most serious – on or before July 26, last year.

He also pleaded guilty to possesion of an extreme pornographic images that were either grossly offensive, disgusting or of an obscene character.

The court heard police discovered seven images involving animals and that Smith is currently undergoing counseling for his problem.

He was commited for sentencing to Croydon Crown Court on a date to be fixed.

Smith was bailed on the conditions he resides at his home address and does not own an internet device or delete the internet history of that device without police permission.

Suspected Rogue Traders Cleared Of OAP Charges

Two suspected rogue traders – accused of pressurising an OAP into having expensive building work carried out to the roof of his suburban home – have been cleared of criminal charges.

Father and son contractor Maurice Cole, 46, and Sean Cole, 20, both of Pennyhill Park, Minley Road, Blackwater, Surrey were prosecuted by Croydon Council's trading standards team.

A Croydon Crown Court jury found them and MC & Sons Development Ltd not guilty of offences allegedly committed while working at the home of 90 year-old Royston Harvey in Caterham Drive, Coulsdon.

They were both originally charged that between May 29 and June 1, 2011 they were in breach of Unfair Trading Regulations in relation to the roof, gables and chimney at the address.

They were also both charged with fraud in that on May 31, 2011 failed to disclose information to make a gain for themselves, namely dihonestly failed to disclose to Mr. Harvey that he had the right to cancel the works contract at his address.  

Carer Accused Of "Abuse And Neglect" At Mental Health Home

An abusive care assistant sparked a mass cover-up at a home for the mentally-ill after a shocked "whistleblower" - who witnessed systematic cruelty - reported him to social services, prompting a police investigation, a court heard yesterday.

Police found potentially incriminating documents and official paperwork had been shredded at Bromley's Lauriston House, a seventy-bed residential home for mainly elderly residents suffering dementia, brain damage and other serious disabilities.

Care assistant Marc Harwood, 44, (pic.top) of Howard Way, Bromley denies ill-treating a 92 year-old one-legged female dementia sufferer and two other elderly residents at the home in Bickley Park Road, Bickley.

"The position at the care home was not a happy one and you will hear from care assistant Niluka Ralalage, (pic.bottom) who became shocked at some of the practices going on," prosecutor Mr. Matthew Farmer told the Croydon Crown Court jury.

"She was shocked at the rough treatment and abuse Mr. Harwood meted out to the patients and it is sad to say the management ignored what she told them.

"You could call her a whistleblower and she went to Bromley social services and the subsequent enquiry found the home's management were uncooperative and a lot of documents had been destroyed and shredded.

"Thirteen members of staff were suspended and dismissed, including the manager and assistant manager, and some of the nursing staff were reported to their disciplinary body.

"The culture that was prevalent at the home was one of abuse and neglect."

The court heard 92 year-old Molly Gravenell, who has had one of her legs amputated and is immobile, was being moved from her bed to a wheelchair by Harwood.

"She was being hoisted from her bed and Mr. Harwood was getting angry with her for not bending her remaining leg. It was rigid and fixed, which did happen sometimes.

"He began shouting in Molly's face: 'Bend your bloody leg' and when Niluka intervened told her: 'You're new, you don't know these people, she's a drama queen.'

"His face was twisted and Molly had tears in her eyes as he shouted at her: 'You just eat and sleep. You're a pain in the backside."

On another occasion Molly had a mysterious black eye after Harwood brought her breakfast. 

"He must have seen it and should have reported it so she could get care and attention," explained Mr. Farmer.

Another elderly resident, Cathleen Hill, who had suffered a brain tumour, a stroke and was paralysed down one side and was blind in one eye was being cleaned in her room by Harwood after soiling herself.

"Niluka saw that Mrs Hill was completely naked and Mr. Harwood was extremely angry, shouting: 'Look at this fucking woman. Look at what she's fucking done.'

"He told the resident: 'You're a pain in the backside, kill yourself, cut your throat.

"He said: 'I'm going to fuck you,' and had his thumb extended in front of her, moving it back and forth, simulating sex."

Brain-damaged resident Frank Lord, who was another stroke victim and paralysed down one side, had also soiled himself and was being cleaned by Harwood.

"He was handling him really roughly and flung his arm with a lot of force," explained Mr. Farmer. "Frank was screaming and seemed to be in a lot of pain.

"Mr. Harwood said: 'He's an idiot just a nuisance. He's paralysed, how can he feel pain? He's a drama queen.'

"The screaming continued with Mr. Harwood shouting: 'Don't fuck me or I'll fuck you back' and he slapped Frank really hard on the stomach."

Harwood also pretended he had fed patients when he had not and lied that he had taken them to the toilet and changed their incontinence pads, the jury heard.

Sri Lankan buddhist Miss Ralalage, who still works at the home, told the jury: "I treat the residents like my own parents or grandparents. I have become very close and attached to them."

Harwood denies three counts of ill-treating each patient, wilfully neglecting Mrs Gravenell, assaulting Mr. Lord and wilfully neglecting other unnamed residents between February 1 and August 12, last year.

Trial continues………..  

Rogue Developer Flouts Planning Laws To Cash In

A millionaire property developer, who illegally ripped up the sprung wooden floor of a grade two listed cinema, making a £625,000 profit when it was sold for residential conversion, has been fined.

Franco Lumba, 45, of St. Margaret's Road, Twickenham is laughing all the way to the bank after deliberately ignoring repeated warnings from Kingston-upon-Thames council to cease work on the landmark town centre building.

The original Regal Cinema building became a Gala bingo hall and removal of the sloped amphitheatre floor made the property far more attractive for lucrative residential development.

Lumba pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to executing works on a listed building, without permission, between August 24 and October 26, 2010 and was fined £45,000 with £29,278 costs.

Prosecutor Mr. Richard Heller told the court the defendant's company - FL Trading - purchased the building for £1.975m on June 11 2010 and on July 14 the council received a formal complaint concerning works at the site.

A planning officer visited and the builders refused to identify the owner and refused entry to the building on subsequent occasions - even working on weekends in the knowledge council officers were not available to attend. 

"This case is about the removal of the sloped floor from the back of the auditorium to the front of the stage," explained. "The auditorium floor had been excavated and reduced to rubble."

Lumba applied for a nightclub licence for the building, but was refused.

He recently sold it for £2.6m to developers who wish to convert it into flats.

The court heard Lumba has a £5.7m property portfolio, which includes properties in Knightsbridge and Wentworth, has companies registered in Spain and the Cayman Islands and a motor yacht worth over £1m.

Despite being guilty of ignoring planning laws Lumba tried to get half of his legal bills back because charges against FL Trading were dropped.

"You are asking for costs when I find the company was complicit because it was run by the defendant," said the Recorder of Croydon Warwick McKinnon. "It is almost impertinent for the company to be awarded costs. I reject that.

"He has taken the law into his own hands brazenly and defiantly. The defendant knew it was a listed building.

"There has been a significant profit made and he flagrantly went ahead, disregarding the warnings. This is a bed case of its type."

Lumba will have to pay the fine and costs in full within eight months or go to prison for eighteen months.