A PSYCHIATRIC nurse cleared of trying to kill a terminally ill patient was branded "totally unfit" to care for the elderly by a judge yesterday.

Shaun Darrock wept in the dock at Manchester Crown Court after a jury took three and a half hours to find him not guilty of attempted murder and assault.

But he pleaded guilty to ill-treating another patient by slapping him about the head, "Benny Hill style".

Judge Simon Fawcus jailed him for nine months for that offence - but Darrock walked free immediately because he has spent the last six months behind bars on remand.

"From what I have heard it is quite plain that you are totally unfitted to have the care of elderly patients. Happily it is most unlikely that it will ever happen again", Judge Fawcus told Darrock.

"You behaved in a disgraceful manner but it is right to say that when it was pointed out to you, you stopped.

"But this is a case where clearly a custodial sentence is warranted as a punishment to you and as a warning to anyone in a similar position to you that they cannot expect to behave in that way and escape proper punishment".

Darrock had admitted hitting one patient, George Hunt, while pushing him about in a chair on the psychiatric ward at Bolton General Hospital.

He said the "rat-a-tat" slapping was done for amusement but he stopped as soon as another nurse pointed out he was hurting Mr Hunt.

But 22-year-old Darrock, of Gilnow Gardens, Bolton, had always denied trying to kill another patient, William Winnard, by turning him over and leaving him with his face buried in pillows.

The Crown alleged that Mr Winnard, aged 61, suffered from Alzheimer's disease and could not move or call for help.

Darrock, it was claimed, knew of Mr Winnard's disabilities and deliberately turned him over and left him to die.

Mr Winnard was found by two other nurses. He did eventually die four months later but the prosecution stressed that Darrock's alleged actions played no part in his death.

Darrock, in evidence, said he did not turn Mr Winnard over and claimed the two other nurses may even have invented the incident. "If an incident like that had happened I would have been told and I wasn't", he told the jury.

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