Hull police ARREST nurse trying to take mother, 97, from care home

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Police were caught on camera arresting a qualified nurse as she tried to take her 97-year-old mother from a care home after nine months of isolation to be looked after by family.

Former Coronation Street actress Leandra Ashton wept as officers arrested her 73-year-old mother, Ylenia Angeli, before putting her dementia-sufferer grandmother into a patrol car to be sent back to the facility.    

Ylenia, who is an occupational health nurse, was handcuffed and taken to Hull Police Station before later being de-arrested. 

The family were acting ahead of the second nationwide coronavirus lockdown that comes into force from midnight.

In the initial clip, Leandra records the police officers who have pulled up in front of the family in a car park.

She films the scene as she says: ‘So let’s just make this very clear, my nan – my 97-year-old nan – here who we have taken from the care home because we haven’t seen her for nine months is now being taken back by force to her care home.

‘My mother has been arrested, my mother is in the back of the car here.’

Her mother Ylenia then raises her wrists to show that she has been handcuffed. 

Leandra continues: ‘She is a nurse – a fully-qualified nurse – who is wising to care for her own mother and here we have an incredible use of police time to take my 97-year-old grandmother back into a care home where she is deteriorating where we haven’t been able to see her for nine months.’

Panning the camera to her grandmother in the front seat, the woman becomes emotional as she says: ‘Nan, we love you and we are going to fight for you.’ 

A second clip shows Leandra’s mother trying to comfort her daughter from the back of the patrol car as she urges her to ‘stay strong’.

The officers say she will be taken to Hull Police station before they begin negotiating over taking Leandra’s grandmother back to the care home.

Leandra, who appeared as Saskia Larson in Coronation Street in 2016, later shared the clip to social media before blasting the actions of police in a lengthy post that read: ‘So our final ‘window visit’ at the care home before lockdown didn’t go according to plan.

‘When you are faced with irrational responses your actions become irrational.

‘When you are repeatedly told ‘we’re just following the rules’ and those rules have kept you away from your loved one for about 8 or 9 months, you question those rules.

‘When the rules – like so many in this period of our history – are purporting to be in place to ‘protect’ but yet are causing untold damage to physical and mental health then you start breaking the rules.

‘Yesterday my 73 year old Mum, pushed into the care home to hug my 97 year old Grandma who has dementia. She then quietly wheeled her out.

‘My Mum, is a trained nurse and wishes to care for my Nan at home. We only have Power of Attorney for my Nan’s finances. Not for her wellbeing. Before lock down we could over come this by visiting my Nan regularly. Now we can’t. My Mum was arrested because she refused to take my Nan back to the care home. 

‘It feels like we are living in the worst Kafka-esque nightmare. People in masks coming to take your relative away from you.

‘I find myself for the first time in my life on the wrong side of the law.

‘I have tried to go through all the ‘official channels’: written countless letters to MPs, Public Health, the Care home… I have signed petitions, spoken to social workers, we raised a ‘safe guarding’ concern at the beginning of lockdown due to my Nan’s clear deterioration but this was inexplicably dropped and ‘disappeared’. 

‘When she became ill at the care home and was admitted to hospital we asked that she not go back. Yet she was discharged from hospital behind our backs and without our consent. 

‘When your voice feels lost in a labyrinth of bureaucracy, when you are informed by the police that you are not on your relative’s relevant paper work(!!), when the system is so clearly failing, we have to stand up and reform it.

‘The police were as kind as they could be, they had a hard job. I thank them for trying their best and de-arresting my Mum so we could go home together.

‘The issues are with the ‘guidelines’ and with so much fear preventing creative problem solving. Relatives need to be given key-worker status. They need to be allowed into their relative’s private bedroom to visit, feed and care for their loved ones.’  

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Noble said: ‘We responded to a report of an assault at a care home in Market Weighton in East Yorkshire at 11.15am yesterday (Tuesday 3 November 2020).

‘The care home had also reported that a woman who they were legally responsible for had been taken from the home by her daughter.

‘Officers found both women along with a third woman nearby and informed them that they would need to return the lady to the home, as is their legal duty to do so.

‘The situation was distressing and emotional for everyone and the woman did not want her mother to be returned to the care home staff. 

‘The officer in attendance had to ensure that that everyone was safe and in particular the 93 year old lady who was frail and vulnerable and so made the decision to briefly restrain the 73 year old woman until the situation was calm and under control.

‘Officers then returned the elderly lady to the home.

‘The 73 year old lady was then immediately unrestrained, de-arrested and allowed to return home with her daughter. She and her daughter thanked the officers for the way they had dealt with the incident.

‘We understand that this is an emotional and difficult situation for all those involved. We sympathise with all families who are in this position and will continue to provide whatever support we can to both parties.’ 

The video comes after it was announced that care home visits can only take place outdoors, through windows or in personal protect equipment covered pods during the coronavirus lockdown. 

‘Ad hoc’ in-person visits will not be allowed but homes will still be able to find alternative ways for relatives to meet up with residents.

During the first wave in the spring visits had to be banned completely because the virus was ravaging the care sector and officials feared they could not be safely organised. 

Care organisations and Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, have campaigned for visits to continue to be allowed during the second lockdown to avoid leaving residents isolated.  

In its guidance, issued less than 12 hours before new lockdown measures are introduced, the Department of Health suggested that homes could set up designated visitor ‘pods’ with screens, host visits through windows at a distance, or allow one-on-one meetings outdoors. Failing that, it said, they should try to encourage more virtual visits.

But critics said the rules ‘miss the point’ and would not work well for people with dementia, who make up a majority of care home residents and of whom many would not understand or cope with the rules.  

Outdoor visits will be out of the question for most as the autumn weather turns, with rain and plummeting temperatures now the norm across the country. 

Martin Green, chair of Care England, said it was disappointing that a better policy had not been devised during the months since the first lockdown.