A CRUEL carer who assaulted a frail pensioner with a shower head has had her jail sentence overturned on appeal.

Callous Lisa Curry was jailed in September for six months after being found guilty of slapping an 82-year-old resident, placing her arm up her back and spraying water from a shower head into her face at Buckreddan Care Centre on Irvine Road, Kilwinning on November 14 last year.

But at her appeal hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday (Tuesday) the 24-year-old’s jail sentence was scrapped and she was sentenced to 300 hours community service and given two years probation instead.

The family of Curry’s elderly victim – who the Herald is choosing not to name – spoke of their devastation at the appeal outcome.

Speaking through her tears her granddaughter Tracy Maguire said: “We are shattered by this.

“She assaulted my gran who has dementia and was at her most vulnerable, in the very place where she should have been safe and all she gets is community service. It is a disgrace.

“As a family we just can’t get our heads around the decision. She has been found guilty of abusing my gran twice now and she is still not going to go to jail.

“We feel completely let down by the justice system. It seems they are protecting the abuser but who is going to protect my gran?” Tracy, of Kilwinning, says she and her family take small comfort in the fact that Curry will never work with vulnerable people again.

She said: “We took it as far as we could and we would do it all again because at least we have stopped another vulnerable person being assaulted by her so we can take comfort from that.

“But at the same time she has been given community service which means she will probably be interacting with the public. Who is going to safeguard them from her?

“She got to appeal her sentence but this is the end of the road now for us. We don’t get to appeal anything. We just have to learn to live with it.” She added: “It was just awful to see her there in court. She didn’t even react and she’s never shown any remorse to us.” When she appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in September Curry claimed to have been ‘diagnosed’ with ovarian cancer, but her claims fell on deaf ears and Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane sentenced her to six months behind bars.

Curry, of Pladda Road in Saltcoats, was convicted of placing a running shower head onto her face and then placing her victim’s arm behind her back and slapping her on the face.

She was also found guilty of assaulting the same woman between November 1 and November 17 by slapping her on the body.

The court heard how Curry had never offended before and had worked at Buckreddan Lodge for seven years.

A spokeswoman for the care home confirmed Curry no longer worked there.