A care worker who broke his wrist on two occasions when dealing with violent incidents in a specialist medical centre has denied ill-treating patients.

John Sanderson suffered his first injury within weeks of joining the staff at Whorlton Hall in June 2018 and suffered a second fracture on the same wrist when he was hit with a pool cue five months later.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 25-year-old was one of nine former members of staff from the unit accused of ill-treating patients after being covertly filmed by a BBC reporter.

Sanderson admitted he found the reporter, Olivia Davies, attractive and accepted being ‘disgusted’ by the inappropriate comments he made in front of her.

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The defendant admitted that he had been sacked by the company after another care worker reported him to management for saying he couldn’t wait to ‘deck the *****’ when his wrist had fully recovered.

The Northern Echo: John SandersonJohn Sanderson (Image: The Northern Echo)

Sanderson, who denied using those words, maintained that he was just talking about looking forward to returning to full duties once his wrist injury was healed.

Giving evidence, the defendant denied deliberately antagonising two patients after his actions were caught on the covert recordings, including a clip where he was seen to get hit by one of the service users.

Shaun Dryden, representing Sanderson, asked his client: “We saw him throw a punch at you, did it make contact with you?” He replied: “Yes.”

Mr Dryden continued: “You said to this person that he punched like a woman, what was the purpose of that comment?”

Sanderson said: “There was no purpose, it was highly inappropriate and I was just trying to save face due to the previous incidents (where he was injured).”

The counsel asked: “You said ‘You have got one shot and one shot only’ – what did you mean by that?”

The 25-year-old replied: “Nothing really, I was told by management to be firm with patients to stop violent incidents happening.”

Mr Dryden continued: “You squared up to him at one point, why did you do that?”

He replied: “I feared he was going to attack me.”

The Northern Echo: Whorlton HallWhorlton Hall

Filmed over several weeks, the Panorama reporter captured the defendants allegedly tormenting one distressed patient who was seen to scream in anguish and hit herself as staff encouraged her or threatened to remove all female staff.

She worked as a care assistant at the unit near Barnard Castle while recording the actions of staff in January and February 2019.

The accused are:

• John Sanderson, 25, of Cambridge Avenue, Willington, faces two charges of care worker ill-treatment or wilful neglect of an individual on February 2 and 25, 2019.

• Darren Mark Lawton, 47, of Miners Crescent, Darlington, by virtue of being a care worker, allegedly ill-treated or wilfully neglected a patient on January 27, 2019, and faces the same charge relating to a different patient on February 2.

• Niall Mellor, 26, of Lingmell Dene, Coundon, Bishop Auckland, is accused of the ill-treatment or wilful neglect of a patient on two occasions on January 20 and 24, 2019.

• Sarah Banner, 33, from Faulkner Road, Newton Aycliffe, stands accused of three charges of ill-treatment or neglect of a female in her care on January 24 and of a male patient the following day.

• Matthew Banner, 43, of the same Newton Aycliffe address, faced six charges all relating to the same patient at Whorlton Hall on separate occasions between January 6 and February 22.

• Ryan Fuller, 27, from of Deerbolt Bank, Barnard Castle, faced ten charges of ill-treatment or wilful neglect against six different patients January 19 and February 2.

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• Sabah Mahmood, 27, of Woodland Crescent, Kelloe, is accused of, by virtue of being a care worker, ill-treating or wilfully neglecting a male patient on January 4, 2019.

• Peter Bennett, 53, of Redworth Road, Billingham, faced three charges in total relating to two female patients, on January 6 and February 24.

• Karen McGhee, 54, from Wildair Close, Darlington, faced a total of four charges relating to a male and a female patient which were all said to have happened in January 2019.

All defendants deny the charges against them and the trial continues.