A care worker who was sacked over a post on her Facebook calling Muslims ‘fanatical bigots’ has won a case for unfair dismissal, but has been given no payout. Linda Henderson was sacked after bosses at Ashgill Care Home in Glasgow discovered posts of her social media Muslims should ‘go back to [their] own country’. Other posts on her Facebook said there were ‘no decent honest Muslims’ and that the Scottish Government should focus on jobs for ‘our own kind’. She won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the care home refused to consider a letter from her son claiming he posted the comments Her Facebook page named her employer, and she was found to have breached their social media policy. Ms Henderson admitted to writing the post railing against immigration but denied posting the statement about Muslims, claiming it was written by her son. But managers didn’t believe the claims and Ms Henderson was later sacked. She won her case for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal after the care home refused to consider a letter from her son claiming he posted the comments. Employment judge Robert King said Ms Henderson’s ‘culpable and blameworthy conduct in breaching the respondent’s social media policy was the sole cause of her dismissal’. He added it was ‘just and equitable to reduce her award by 100 per cent’. The tribunal heard that Ms Henderson began working at the care home in November 2015 as an activities co-ordinator. In January 2019, her manager, Rosemary Jalloh, received an anonymous text which contained screenshots from her Facebook page dating back to September 2014. One post stated: ‘Alex Salmond wants MORE IMMIGRANTS? ‘We can’t feed and support our own kind as it is we don’t NEED more immigrants we need jobs with decent wages for our OWN kind.’ The other read: ‘Why are the ‘SO CALLED DECENT MUSLIMS’ allowing their own kind to cause and create terrorism? ‘The answer is there are no DECENT HONEST MUSLIMS. ‘They are all fanatical bigots and it’s time we stood up to them and tell them THIS IS OUR COUNTRY. ‘IF YOU DON’T LIKE OUR LAWS THEN LEAVE. ‘GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY.’ Ms Jalloh saw Ms Henderson had named the care home as her employer on the site and found the posts breached the home’s social media policy. Ms Henderson appealed the decision and offered a letter from her son claiming he had written the post – but bosses refused to consider it as it had been presented too late. Judge King found this was an error and the letter should have been considered.
February 3, 2021
The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has appointed a new chairman for one of its research institutes. Former Housing Board chief executive Cheong Koon Hean, 63, will assume the position of chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in June. She will be taking over from Professor Chan Heng Chee, 78, who has led the centre since its establishment in 2012, said SUTD on Monday (Jan 26).
December 3, 2020
Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care (RSDH) has announced the appointment of Raymond Chong Chin Wah as its new group CEO with effect from Dec 1, 2020. The group said in a statement that Chong will take over the reins from current group CEO Greg Brown who has been at the helm of RSDH’s operations in Asia since Oct 31, 2017, and will be leaving the Australia-based Ramsay Health Care Group after 16 years. With over 30 years of experience in healthcare, Chong has extensive expertise and cross-culture experience in managing hospitals in Australia, Thailand and Malaysia. He also has a successful track record in business turnaround, and merger and acquisition across Southeast Asia. Prior to joining RSDH, Raymond was CEO of Bangkok Dusit Medical Service, managing the hospital group Samitivej Public Company Limited and various healthcare wellness businesses in Thailand including the commissioning of a 294-room wellness resort catering for residential medical and wellness programmes.
January 24, 2020
A 35-year-old nursing home employee who was convicted, then acquitted, of molesting a patient was yesterday sentenced to 16 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane after the Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal. The case rested on the testimony of a nurse who said that she saw the man straddling the 55-year-old patient with his trousers pulled down. The patient was found to be mentally unfit to testify. In 2018, a High Court judge cleared the man of a molestation charge, saying that an eyewitness account was subject to a greater degree of misapprehension and error compared with a victim’s own testimony. But, yesterday, the Court of Appeal said there was no reason to disbelieve the nurse’s testimony. The three-judge court also ruled that the evidence of an eyewitness was neither less nor more reliable than that of an alleged victim. “We are of the view that the judge erred when he appeared to suggest that there were differing standards in relation to eyewitnesses as opposed to alleged victims,” said the court in an 85-page judgment written by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon. Case law stipulates that the uncorroborated testimony of a victim has to be “unusually convincing” for it to be accepted as the sole basis to convict an accused person. The apex court made it clear that the same standard of proof applies to eyewitnesses as well. “If an eyewitness were subject to a less stringent standard than the ‘unusually convincing’ standard, it would implicitly suggest that sexual offence victims are inherently less honest than eyewitnesses, and that their evidence needs to be treated with more suspicion,” said the court. In the current case, the victim has difficulty moving and is confused most of the time as a result of multiple strokes. The nurse was on her rounds on Nov 26, 2016, when she saw the man kneeling on the bed on top of the patient, whose diaper was partly opened. The man’s trousers were pulled to thigh level and his groin was touching the patient’s, she said. After five seconds, she left and told a male nurse to check the room. He saw only the accused looking at his mobile phone. The accused argued that the nurse was mistaken about what she saw as she had only a quick look. He said he was in the room to repair the TV set of another resident, when he saw the patient’s head pressed against the side rail of her bed. He said he put his knee between the railing’s bars to reach for a pillow on the far side of the bed and placed it under her head. He said no part of his body touched hers. In May 2018, the man was sentenced to 22 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane after he was found guilty by a district court following a 14-day trial. His appeal against the conviction was allowed by a High Court judge, who said the nurse’s testimony alone was not strong enough to prove the case against him beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution then filed a criminal reference, asking the Court of Appeal to rule on legal questions relating to the standard of proof in such cases. The apex court held that there was no reasonable doubt – the nurse was standing about 11/2 arm’s length away from the victim’s bed and her view was unobstructed. Her account was so drastically different from the man’s version that it could not be explained as a mistake, said the court. The court added that a 16-month jail term was appropriate, as the prosecution could not establish that there was premeditation or that the victim suffered severe psychiatric harm.
September 4, 2019
An elderly man who allegedly killed his 79-year-old flatmate appeared in court on Monday (Sept 2) via videolink from the Central Police Division. Pak Kian Huat, alias Pek Kiah Huat, 82, was charged with murdering Madam Lim Soi Moy in a Housing Board flat on the 21st storey of Block 191 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh. Police had received a call about the case at around 3.40am on Sunday and officers found Madam Lim motionless in the unit. She was later pronounced dead by paramedics.
June 3, 2019
Video has surfaced of a 92-year-old mother confessing to shooting her 72-year-old son dead after he threatened to put her in a nursing home. Anna Mae Blessing was arrested last year for shooting her son Thomas dead. Blessing, who dies in November in hospice care while awaiting trial, says in a video interview with police that she had two guns stashed inside her dressing gown. She told police that as Thomas came towards her she fired multiple rounds at her only son. “I can’t remember the calibre, it was a good size one,” she said. “I backed up and I pulled the trigger, and it broke the mirror and I don’t know what I did. Then Tom was going to come at me again so I pulled the trigger … I’m sure the second round hit him.”
April 4, 2019
A contaminated salad containing duck meat is suspected of having killed five residents of a care home for the elderly in southern France. Four women and a man, aged from 76 to 95, died after eating the salad on Sunday night. In all, 20 people at the home near Toulouse suffered vomiting and other symptoms of food poisoning. Twelve of those taken ill are in hospital, but not in grave danger. The salad ingredients, including duck foie gras (pâté), are being examined.
March 22, 2019
A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on a misdemeanour assault charge after he was accused of groping a woman in home hospice care while giving her last rites.
