West Lothian carer who 'imitated passing wind' in residents' faces struck off

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A West Lothian care worker who pretended to fart in the faces of two vulnerable residents has been banned from the sector.

Christopher Watson carried out the disturbing prank while employed as a support worker at 2 The Standing in Kirknewton, a centre which supports people with learning disabilities.

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The behaviour took place on two occasions in the summer of 2021, resulting in him being convicted of admitted ill-treatment or wilful neglect at Livingston Sheriff Court last year.

One of the victims hit the side of his face because Watson failed to provide support when he ‘came out of the kitchen and put his arms out’ to ask for help.

Watson was not convicted of that act but it was nonetheless recognised by the Scottish Social Services Council.

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On another occasion, the carer told a separate resident to ‘open your legs’ and branded him a ‘p****’ while he was sitting in a shower chair.

The SSSC described Watson’s misconduct as ‘abusive’, writing: “You have failed to provide an acceptable level of care to service users in your care.

“At its highest, the behaviour is abusive and demonstrates a failure to respect and maintain the dignity of service users.

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“The behaviour is indicative of serious attitudinal and values issues. Your actions could have caused serious physical harm to a service user and had the potential to cause emotional harm to service users.

“The behaviour was deliberate and showed a repeated failure to provide an acceptable level of care to service users and raises serious attitudinal and values issues.

“You have not shown any insight and there are therefore no reassurances that there would be no risk of repetition of the behaviour.

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“There is an ongoing public protection risk and a reasonable person in possession of all the information would consider the reputation of the profession to be damaged if you were able to practise without restriction.”

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