A retired British nurse was arrested for taking her dementia-stricken 97-year-old mother out of a nursing home ahead of the country’s second national lockdown amid surging coronavirus cases, according to reports.
Video of the Tuesday confrontation obtained by BBC News shows Ylenia Angeli, 73, in the back of a police vehicle after removing her mother, Tina Thornborough, from a long-term care facility in east Yorkshire.
“So, let’s just make this very clear,” Thornborough’s granddaughter, Leandra Ashton, said in the clip. “My nan, my 97-year-old nan here who we have taken from the care home because we haven’t seen her for nine months, is now being taken back by force to her care home.”
Ashton said her mother was also arrested during the incident at the facility, which is legally responsible for Thornborough’s care, BBC News reported.
Humberside police in northern England responded to the nursing home in Market Weighton after getting reports of an assault.
Angeli was later released without being charged, while her mother was taken back to the home — with police saying they had a “legal duty” to return her there, BBC News reported.
“These are such desperate times when there doesn’t seem to be any rational explanation as to why we can’t find a way through, in a safe way,” Ashton told the outlet.
“When it gets to the point where the family is breaking the law in order to try and see their relatives, it tells you how desperate, not only we are, but thousands of families all over the country.”
Ashton mocked the incident as an “incredible use of police time” in the 90-second clip.
“Nan, I love you and we are going to fight for you,” Ashton told Thornborough as she sat in the family’s car.
Humberside police noted the “incredibly difficult circumstances” facing families with loved ones in long-term care facilities amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
“We responded to a report of an assault at the care home, who are legally responsible for the woman’s care and were concerned for her well-being,” Assistant Chief Constable Chris Noble said.
“As was our legal duty, we returned the lady to the home and a 73-year-old woman who was initially arrested was de-arrested and allowed to return home with her daughter.”
Ashton, meanwhile, is now calling on government officials to ease rules on visits to nursing homes and assisted living facilities as England entered its second national lockdown at midnight Thursday.
“The police were as kind as they could be, they had a hard job,” Ashton told The Guardian. “I thank them for trying their best and de-arresting my mum. My issues are with the guidelines.”
Ashton said “breaking the rules” becomes an option when they cause “untold damage” to people’s physical and mental health.
“I find myself for the first time in my life on the wrong side of the law,” she said.
