Asmita Pandey sentenced for assaulting Epping aged care home patients

The daughter of one elderly patient who was assaulted by a nursing assistant at a northwest Sydney aged care centre has expressed her disappointment following the worker’s sentencing. Find out her punishment.

Asmita Pandey has avoided jail after assaulting four women at Estia Health aged care centre.

A nursing assistant who slapped four vulnerable patients at an Epping nursing home will be free to serve her sentence in the community instead of behind bars.

Asmita Pandey, who was entrusted to care for ailing residents at Estia Health aged care centre, abused her role and spent her shift assaulting the women when she got them ready for bed.

The victims all had dementia, many with weak frames with no chance of defending themselves when Pandey would walk into their rooms and slap their faces because they were being “loud” or “uncooperative”.

The women – Therzina Morrison, Joan Murray, Catherine Harrison and Jill Woods – were abused between December 2021 and March 2022.

At Parramatta Local Court in January, a two-day hearing was scheduled but Pandey, who is pregnant, entered guilty pleas to four counts of common assault.

Estia Health aged care centre at Epping. Picture: Google

The court heard Ms Morrison, 95, was slapped between February and late March in 2022.

Another victim, Mrs Murray, also suffered a slap between February and March last year when Pandey was working to get her into bed after she changed her into her pyjamas.

“The victim was being uncooperative, (Pandey) sat the victim on the bed and with an open hand, slapped the victim across the face then placed the victim into bed,’’ the police facts stated.

About January 2022, a co-worker witnessed Pandey slap Jill Woods, 82, during a night shift.

About 6am the witness was preparing to give Ms Woods a shower when she asked her co-worker Pandey to help her place the victim on the shower chair. The victim “tended to be very restrictive and loud when trying to shower her”.

“A few minutes into showering the victim, the victim started screaming, which was normal for her to do while showering her,’’ the police facts state.

Joan Murray weighed a frail 30kg when she was assaulted.

Merelynne Southall and Rosslyn Peschke with a picture of their mother Joan Murray.

The fourth victim, Ms Harrison, was slapped on March 24, 2022, after Pandey and a witness walked into her room in the memory support unit of the aged care centre so they could dress her in her night wear.

Police arrested Pandey at her Homebush unit on March 30.

After the sentencing, Rosslyn Peschke, whose mother 95-year-old Mrs Murray, was a patient at Estia, expressed disappointment that 26-year-old Pandey was not jailed.

At Parramatta Local Court on Friday, Magistrate Stephen Barlow sentenced Pandey to an eight-month intensive correction order and must undertake 30 hours of community service.