The family of an 88-year-old woman with dementia installed a hidden camera in her room at Reigate Grange, a luxury care home in Surrey, after growing concerned about her welfare. The footage, shared exclusively with the Guardian, reveals physical and mental abuse by staff at the facility, which charges residents nearly £100,000 a year.
The video shows care staff handling Ann King roughly, causing her to cry out in distress. On one occasion, she was left on the floor for 50 minutes. Staff are also seen taunting, mocking, and swearing at her when she was confused and frightened. In a particularly disturbing incident, a cleaner hit her with a rag used to clean a toilet while she lay in bed, threatened to empty a bin on her head, and made indecent sexual gestures in her face.
King's children, Richard Last and Clare Miller, installed the covert camera on her bedside table. They decided to release the footage because they fear the abuse may not be an isolated incident. Miller said her mother, a retired nurse, would have wanted the mistreatment exposed.
Signature Senior Lifestyle, which operates 36 luxury facilities mainly in southern England, admitted that King was mistreated at Reigate Grange earlier this year. The company is owned by Revera, a Canadian care company, which is wholly owned by a £150bn Canadian pension fund investor. Despite promising “luxury living, exceptional care”, the Care Quality Commission downgraded the home's rating from “good” to “requires improvement” in April, citing inconsistent leadership.
Surrey police investigated the footage. The cleaner, an agency worker, admitted common assault and has been banned from working for the company. One care worker was fired, two resigned, and one was retrained. The manager at the time now runs another Signature home, which the company says it has full confidence in. Signature apologised to the family, calling the behaviour “reprehensible” but insisting it was committed by “rogue individuals”. The family, however, believes it reflects wider cultural problems.
King is now being cared for at home by her daughter, but appears traumatised. Miller said her mother has asked her to hide in the wardrobe to “stop the people coming in at night and hurting me”. Jayne Easterbrook, a nurse with 42 years of experience, described the carers' actions as “aggressive”, “violent”, and “in the wrong job”.
