A CRUEL care home nurse who told a frail elderly woman she was "stinking" and that her face was "ugly" has escaped with a suspension.

Gabriele Maeule also left the woman, who suffered from dementia, alone in a toilet for one minue and switched off the light.

The incidents happened at Letham Park Care Home in Edinburgh.

During an inquiry a witness described how the elderly woman had asked staff why she had been left alone in the dark.

A charge found proved states that the said to the elderly woman: "Your face look very ugly like that" or words to that effect on May 31, 2015.

She also described the woman as “stinking” or “smelling” or words to that effect and that charge was also found proved.

The nurse failed to attend a disciplinary hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council because she was in Germany saying: "The hearing is not important to me. I don’t come back to the UK in the next few years.”

However the NMC panel heard evidence from a health care assistant and the manager of the home who were deemd to be "credible and reliable."

The inquiry concluded: "To allow someone suffering from dementia, and who is thereforeconstantly disorientated and reliant on others, to be left alone in the dark lacks a fundamental understanding of the nature of the condition, as well as basic human compassion."

The NMC panel argued that a striking off order would be "disproportionate" and the nurse was suspended for nine months, which will follow an interim 18-month ban if she does not appeal.