Court dismisses charges against Espoo care worker over alleged assaults

Western Uusimaa District Court has dismissed assault charges against a care worker accused of attacking five autistic minors at Rinnekodit’s Majakka care unit in Espoo, Yle reports. The judgment is final.

The alleged assaults took place in Lakisto in 2021 and 2022. The children were between 11 and 16 years old at the time.

According to the charges, the worker hit the children with a hand, a cloth and a bucket, grabbed one by the neck and pushed another from behind. The prosecutor did not claim that the assaults caused visible injuries.

The court said that even minor violence would have been particularly reprehensible given the victims’ circumstances and the worker’s position. However, the alleged victims could not be questioned about the incidents because they did not communicate sufficiently through speech.

Colleagues gave conflicting accounts

The case was based on concerns reported by three employees of the unit in 2022. They testified that the worker’s conduct involved not only violence but also contempt and indifference towards the residents.

The worker denied the assaults, saying they did not recognise the situations described in the reports or that the events had been portrayed inaccurately. The worker said they may have grabbed a resident’s hand to prevent them from taking food from other people’s plates, but denied hitting anyone’s hand.

Five other colleagues testified for the defence. They said they had not observed problems in the worker’s conduct, including anger, pushing or violence. One colleague said the worker organised many activities for the residents, several of whom liked the worker very much.

The court found that the workplace was marked by personal conflicts and disagreements over the correct procedures. The employees who filed the concerns said they had been discriminated against.

The court also said the delay in reporting some of the alleged problems weakened the case. Some incidents were reported only months later, and there was uncertainty about the dates and content recorded in the concern reports.

Residents and staff spent much of their time in the same rooms. In the court’s view, other employees besides those called by the prosecution would therefore most likely have noticed the alleged assaults.

Family member’s representative plans new investigation request

Yle reports that the family of one of the alleged victims is dissatisfied with how the suspicions were investigated. The victim’s mother’s representative plans to request a new investigation into whether the victim was unlawfully kept in a locked room.

Yle’s MOT current affairs team examined crime allegations connected to the Majakka unit in 2024.

The case has no direct connection to a separate incident at the same Rinnekodit service centre, where police used a conducted energy weapon on a person with an intellectual disability. That person later died in hospital. The incidents involved different units and different residents.