A CARE assistant is accused of slapping an elderly dementia sufferer in the face as she tried to dress the woman at a residential home.

Durham Crown Court was told that Linda Hope, 26, was heard shouting at the 96-year-old woman as she attempted to get her ready in her room at the Castle Bank Residential Home, Tow Law, County Durham, one morning last October.

Senior care assistant Joan Ridley, who was helping a patient in the next room, told the court she then heard "a pretty loud slap".

Mrs Ridley said that Miss Hope came in from the next room and complained of being scratched by the resident, saying: "Look what she's done to me", referring to two marks on her forehead.

Miss Hope was described as "agitated and angry", before she went back next door, returning minutes later saying the resident was suffering from a nose bleed.

Mrs Ridley told the court she went into the next room and said that although she could see no nose bleed, the resident had a large red mark on her face, which had not been there when she had checked her earlier.

She told the court Miss Hope offered the explanation that the resident had grabbed her glasses, "which must have caught her in the face".

In cross-examination by defence barrister David Rowland, Mrs Ridley said the resident could be "a little bit awkward".

Asked if she herself had been driven to striking the resident, Mrs Ridley said: "No. You might feel like it, but you don't. You just stand back."

Miss Hope, of Alpine Way, Tow Law, denies assault causing actual bodily harm.

The trial continues today.