A CARE worker who grabbed an elderly man by the throat and pinned him against a door has been put behind bars.

Craig Dann repeatedly lost his temper with vulnerable residents at The Old Vicarage residential home in Burtonwood, leaving other members of staff shocked at his behaviour.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that one of the most shocking incidents happened when an 82-year-old man refused to go into the dining room.

Dann, 36, grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the door.

The man, who looked stunned and frightened, was pinned there for two to three seconds.

Realising that there were relatives of residents nearby, he immediately released him.

READ > Catalans Dragons players asked to donate to Steve Prescott Foundation after 'disrespectful' Man of Steel votes

On another occasion he was heard shouting to the same man to ‘come on’ and was seen forcibly pushing the distressed man into the dining room.

Dann was convicted by a jury of five offences of ill treatment to residents and one of common assault, which happened over three months last summer.

Jailing him for eight months Judge Brian Cummings QC said: “You have not shown a flicker of remorse.

“Dementia is a cruel condition which changes memory and sense of identity and renders them very vulnerable, over and above their inherent vulnerability, and is very distressing for the sufferers, friends and family.

“Great trust was reposed in you and you abused that trust.”

Judge Cummings added: “(Care work) can be very demanding but that is no excuse for the way you behaved.

“You were clearly unsuited for this work but you chose to undertake it.”

He said Dann continued to maintain his innocence: “You continue to maintain that you were the victim of malicious evidence from people who did not like you. The jury rejected that.”

He has been banned from working with vulnerable adults.

Statements from relatives of the victims told how they had been affected by his behaviour.

The daughter of the 82-year-old man grabbed round the throat told how she had “cried with shock and felt sad for my father”. The husband of a frail 76-year-old victim said that he had not been surprised that Dann had been the man to blame. She said he had been “horrible” to residents.

Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said Dann behaved “unsympathetically, aggressively and on occasions with violence”.

In May last year a domestic assistant was walking behind him as he pushed a 79-year-old woman along in a wheelchair and heard her saying something about bins.

Instead of a sympathetic response he said: “If you carry on I’ll put you in a body bag and put you in a f….ing bin’.”

On other occasions he had been heard swearing at residents.

Mr Edwards said that another employee saw Dann tell another woman, 77, who was at high risk of falling, to sit down in a raised voice “as if angry” and three times pushed her back into her seat with his hands firmly on her shoulders.

The two men began to scuffle and Dann dragged him into the room to the table before the colleague intervened.

When a 79-year-old woman poured jug of juice over a dining room table he lost his temper effectively frog marched her out of the room.

Michael Hagerty, defending, said: “It was not vicious targeting. He was effectively in the wrong job. They were individual instances where he lost his temper. It was his inability to cope rather than malice.

“He had been working there for a year and reports showed that he had been making progress.

“He is a flamboyant individual with a good sense of humour. He is a caring individual.”

Dann has a supportive family and a long term partner and has not been able to leave his home because of adverse publicity on social media, said Mr Hagerty.