OLAYENI: NURSE BEAT UP COLLEAGUE BECAUSE SHE SAT IN RECLINING CHAIR

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Snaresbrook Crown Court/Sonia Elks
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23 September 2011

recliner…1

A student nurse who viciously beat a fellow carer in a row over who got to sit in a reclining chair during a night shift looking after a gravely ill child has been spared jail.

Bolanle Olayeni, 27, grabbed fellow carer Comfort Ebako-Awanda around the throat and repeatedly punched her in the face while looking after the girl in the family home in south London.

She finally had to be dragged off by the child’s mother after the family were woken by the fight at 2.30am, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

‘It seems all this arose because you had an argument between the two of you, both of you adult woman, about who should sit on a reclining chair, said the judge, Miss Recorder Sally Ann Hales.

‘You behaved in a way that was utterly appalling and you should be ashamed of yourself.’

The court heard that both women had been caring for the young girl, identified only as Jenny, on a night shift between 3-4 September last year.

At about 2.30am, Olayeni got up to help the child to the toilet, and found that Ms Ebako-Awanda had taken the reclining chair where she had been dozing, leaving her with the upright chair.

Olayeni demanded that her colleague get up and give her back the more comfortable seat, and said: ‘Shut your mouth or I will beat you, when her colleague refused.

She then launched herself at the other woman, grabbing her round the throat and repeatedly punching her in the face before forcing her to the floor where she continued the attack.

She needed medical treatment for black eyes, heavy bruising around her face, neck and arms, black eyes and bleeding from one ear.

Olayeni denied actual bodily harm, claiming she had acted in defence, but was found guilty at trial, which heard she was younger, fitter and stronger than her middle aged colleague.

‘She is very sorry for what has happened between her and the complainant in this matter,’ said Kehinda Atanda, defending.

‘She tells me she has learned a lot from what happened.’

He added that the carer and mental health nursing student works 84-hour weeks to support her unemployed husband and two children.

The judge said the child’s family had been let down by the fight in their own home.

‘They trusted you to act in a professional manner to care for their daughter in their home,’ she said.

‘You thoroughly abused that trust.’

But the judge accepted that the fight was an ‘isolated incident’ for Olayeni, who has no previous convictions.

‘I take into account the very long hours that you work and I want you to carry on working and studying to become a mental health nurse, which I understand is your ambition,’ she said.

Olayeni, of (flat 13) Chilham house, 3 Lovelinch Close, South Bermondsey was given a community order, under which she must carry out 40 hours of unpaid work in the next year.

She was also ordered to pay £500 in compensation to Ms Ebako-Awanda, and £1,000 towards the prosecution costs, at a rate of £100 per month.

Ends.