Carer found guilty of ‘nasty, poisonous’ threats, assault on elderly woman with dementia
An Illawarra carer has been found guilty of physically and verbally assaulting an elderly woman with dementia after it was all captured on tape. HEAR HER VILE ABUSE.
Illawarra Star
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An Illawarra woman has broken down in court, after a magistrate found her guilty of assaulting the 81-year-old “second nana” she cared for.
Alicia Gawronski, 26, was found guilty of common assault and intimidation by Magistrate Roger Clisdell on Thursday, after police caught her unleashing a tirade of abuse on 81-year-old dementia sufferer Gladys Buchanan at a Thirroul home on August 31 last year.
Despite police filming Gawronski punch and hurl threats at Ms Buchanan, Gawronski denied the charges, telling the court she “wouldn’t dare” lay a hand on Ms Buchanan.
In the witness stand on Thursday, Gawronski cried as she explained the love she had for Ms Buchanan, telling the court she’d been labelled a “daughter” and “guardian angel” by the elderly woman.
“I’d known her for five years … She was my adopted nana, she was part of my family- I would do anything, and spend any amount of money on Gladys,” she said.
“I wouldn’t hurt Gladys. Ever.”
But the footage and audio recordings played to the court painted a very different picture to the “friendship” Gawronski described.
At one point, the 26-year-old can be heard yelling at Ms Buchanan, telling her “you’re full of s**t, you’re a carry on candy. No one’s going to believe you, you’re full of s**t, and you’ve got dementia, remember that.”
The elderly woman’s moans and screams featured heavily throughout the recording, before several slapping noises and Gawronski saying “do it again, I dare ya” and threatening to send her to a nursing home.
In attempting to justify her actions, Gawronski told the court that being sent to a nursing home was Ms Buchanan’s “biggest fear”, and that she used the threat to “snap” the elderly woman back to reality.
“It’s not a threat it’s an incentive, I said things that I could get her to understand,” Gawronski told the court.
“Her biggest fear was going to a home- so it was her best trigger to get her back to compos mentis, back to reality … it wasn’t about intimidating her.”
While the police feared the slapping noises were Gawronski hitting the frail old woman,
Gawronski said she was “slapping herself” to get Ms Buchanan’s attention.
Police who attended the home following a concern for Ms Buchanan’s welfare on the night of August 31 last year previously told the court they had seen Gawronski “punch Ms Buchanan in the upper thigh with a closed fist”.
Gawronski rejected these claims in court on Thursday, saying she was applying baby powder to the inside of Ms Buchanan’s legs.
“I would touch her thighs with a closed fist because I have acrylic nails and they are razor sharp,” she said.
“I think [the accusation] is completely preposterous.”
During the hearing, the court heard Gawronski had no formal training around caring for a dementia patient, and that she only began caring for Ms Buchanan full-time after she was released from hospital three months prior.
Despite Ms Buchanan’s geriatrician recommending she be taken to a “high level care facility”, Gawronski, who had recently become the elderly woman’s legal guardian, had Ms Buchanan discharged from hospital.
The court heard that in the three months between her release from hospital and Gawronski’s arrest, Ms Buchanan’s health had rapidly deteriorated, and that she had lost 10 per cent of her body weight.
It was the prosecution’s case that on the night of August 31, Gawronski, who suffered from mental and physical health issues herself, and without any formal training, “reached the end of her tether and snapped”.
“Ms Gawronski was so frustrated and overwhelmed by her caring responsibilities that she became angry, and spoke and acted in a way that intimidated Ms Buchanan,” police prosecutor Sergeant Sean Thackray said.
While Gawronski argued that the swearing and sledging heard in the audio captured the unique and “colourful” relationship she and Ms Buchanan had, Sergeant Thackray said there was nothing “light or kind” about the way she spoke.
“Ms Gawronski says it was language they usually used, that Ms Buchanan was an Aussie larrikin who used pub language …” he said.
“But there was nothing lighthearted or nice, nothing soft or kind in the tone she spoke … she was trying to intimidate Ms Buchanan.”
Magistrate Clisdell agreed that there audio captured by Gawronski’s arresting officers was “disturbing”.
“As I enter my senior years I can tell you that if I ended up in a situation like this I would not be particularly happy …” he said.
“The tone of Ms Gawronski was poisonous, it’s nasty, it’s threatening, it’s mean and it’s mean-spirited.”
Magistrate Clisdell said he was shocked that Gawronski and her mother Desiree, whom she had joint guardianship with, thought they knew better than Ms Buchanan’s geriatrician with 25 years experience.
“The mere fact they said it was ‘just a doctor’s opinion’ … I would have thought they would have known a little better when it came to these sorts of things.”
In handing down his decision, Magistrate Clisdell said he agreed with the prosecution that Gawronski had hit her wit’s end.
“[Ms Buchanan] was abused and threatened and I’m satisfied that if Ms Gawronski believed her language wasn’t out of the ordinary then she must be delusional,” he said.
“She’d reached the end of her tether, Ms Buchanan’s health was turning south, it was late at night, she can’t cope anymore and she loses it. I’m satisfied she punched a frail woman in anger.”
Magistrate Clisdell told the court a jail term for Gawronski’s offending was likely and adjourned the case for sentencing on December 20.