A HUDDERSFIELD nurse guilty of `disgraceful bullying' has been struck off the nursing register.

John Malcolm Margison was said to have left patients in soiled beds and tied their call buzzers out of reach.

Mr Margison, 59, of Edale Avenue, Newsome, was said to have slept in the lounge, watched TV and read newspapers on the night shift at Bronte Park Nursing Home, Haworth, near Keighley.

A panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, meeting in Wetherby, said Mr Margison, who worked at the home from August, 2000, to January, 2001, was not fit to practice and was guilty of misconduct.

Panel chairman Jonathan Ashbridge said Mr Margison's bullying was disgraceful and the public needed protection.

Mr Margison, who did not go to the hearing, was found guilty of tying up call bells out of the reach of residents, handling residents inappropriately, failing to carry out checks and verbally abusing careworkers and residents.

The panel heard evidence in his absence, after advice from a barrister.

Throughout the hearing residents of the 29-bed home were only identified by letter, not name.

Care assistant Diane Bennett said she saw buzzers put out of the reach of residents.

She also found some residents covered in faeces when Mr Margison, a Registered Mental Nurse since 1973, was in charge.

She had also seen a resident crying in distress and wet in bed. Her buzzer was tied up, which meant she could not summon help.

Mrs Bennett said Mr Margison failed to carry out proper checks and some residents were left wet and soiled as he was asleep in the lounge.

She had seen him push one resident and drag another. He was abusive to her when she confronted him.

She added: "I refused to work any more shifts with him because he didn't look after people properly. I wouldn't want my mother treated like that."

Brian Taylor, of Bingley, who was nurse manager at the time, said he had seen one resident whose skin was red and inflamed because she had not been turned.

He added: "By the state of the incontinence pad I didn't believe it had been changed during the night. I expected the nurse in charge to visibly see every resident in the night, to check on their condition."

He confronted Mr Margison about the bells being tied up and incontinence pads not being changed.

Mr Margison denied they had not been changed or that he was responsible for the condition of the bells.

Care worker Joanne Gavagan said she had seen Mr Margison verbally abuse patients. During a five-hour shift after giving medication he would watch television and read newspapers, she said.

Mr Margison told The Examiner he did not do the things had been accused of.

"I didn't go to the tribunal because it is very difficult to disprove what they claim I did," he added.