Four care home workers have appeared in court over the alleged ill-treatment of eight elderly patients suffering from dementia.
The charges followed a police investigation into a number of reported incidents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, near Lancaster, where the defendants worked.
Darren Smith, 34, Katie Cairns, 26, Carol Moore, 53, and Gemma Pearson, 27, are accused under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 of being a carer involved in the ill-treatment and wilful neglect of a person with lack of capacity.
Smith, of Howgill Avenue, Lancaster, is charged with offences against eight residents; Cairns, of Riverview Court, Morecambe, is said to have ill-treated four residents; Moore, of Ripon Avenue, Lancaster, is accused of six offences, and Pearson, of Hill Street, Carnforth, is charged with one offence.
The offences are said to have taken place between May 2010 and September 2011.
No pleas were entered and magistrates in Lancaster ruled the case should be transferred to Preston Crown Court.
A plea and case management hearing will be heard on February 18. All four defendants were released on bail.
Police confirmed that three other individuals intially arrested as part of the long-running investigation were released last month and no further action has been taken against them.
They included a 27-year-old man and 57-year-old woman from Morecambe and a 23-year-old Lancaster man.
The mistreatment is alledged to have taken place in the home’s challenging behaviour unit, which cares for people with advanced Alzheimer’s Disease.