A CARE worker has been struck off after groping a colleague’s bottom and telling him she “slept naked”.
Liz Fulton, who worked in Edinburgh, also told the man that she “assisted the night shift without a bra on” while looking suggestively at her breasts..
She had worked at the Jericho House care home for adults with alcohol or mental health issues, on Edinburgh’s Lothian Street, for nearly 14 years.
Ms Fulton was dismissed from her job following a disciplinary hearing in March last year.
Ms Fulton, understood to be in her 60s, faced multiple charges at a Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hearing in Dundee last week.
She was found guilty of 11 of the 15 charges, and the panel noted that she had “limited regret” about her actions.
Ms Fulton had denied all of the allegations in writing beforehand but did not attend the hearing. She also provided two testimonials but they “were of very limited assistance”.
Groped
The panel found that between September 2011 and June 2013, while working at the home and whilst subject to a final written warning from her employer, Ms Fulton “groped the buttocks of her colleague AA and then smiled at him”.
Ms Fulton told AA that she “no longer had any pubic hair”, that she “slept naked whilst on sleepover duty” and that one one occasion she “assisted the night shift without a bra on, or words to that effect, and looked towards her chest area while making this comment”.
She also called out “I can hear you” whilst he was urinating in a nearby toilet.
The panel ruled that Ms Fulton had abused her colleague and caused him to become “distressed, uneasy and embarrassed” because she “failed to treat him with respect”.
Disgrace
Another colleague, BB, was told by Ms Fulton: “I better watch what I say or someone will run to the manager’s office”, whilst looking directly at him.
She also said “That’ll be him away to get breast fed” in relation to him, and told him, “Everyone in Jericho talks about you and no one likes you and you are a disgrace”.
Summing up, the committee stated that Ms Fulton had “concealed her behaviour and sought to explain it in the context of a culture of alleged sexualised banter and innuendo, for which there was no evidence”.
It added: “The imposition of a Removal Order was proportionate in the circumstances.
Regret
“The Registrant currently represented a direct risk to social service carer colleagues and an indirect risk to service users.
“She had harmed her colleagues and placed them at risk of harm. Her lack of insight and her very limited regret were insufficient to demonstrate that she had learned from the incidents at all.”
The Jericho House care home is run by the Jericho Benedictine society, a Catholic order of monks who help those suffering from drug, alcohol and mental health issues.
Their main base is in Paisley, Renfrewshire and the 20-bed home on Lothian Street, Edinburgh is one of several across the UK.
It was reported earlier this week that it will close in October due to falling numbers of residents.
