The son of the 88-year-old Ely woman abused by carers has released a statement in which he says he wishes the abusers no ill but are glad they will never again work in the care industry.

He was speaking after Viorel Constantin, 28, and Cristina-Alexandra Constantin, 26, were jailed following allegations of neglect.

He writes:

I remember a few years ago, when my mum could still speak, we went to have her eyes tested in Tesco. At that time she was losing some of her cognition and wasn’t able to answer everything the optician asked.

He didn’t think he do could much for her. As we walked away, she said to me that she is now just thrown on the scrap heap. I reassured her that, to me, that was certainly not the case.

A number of years on and she no longer talks but she still hears and understands. When I ask her to look at me, she looks at me, and I see those eyes, behind which I’m sure she still has thoughts, dreams, even ambitions.

Maybe she thinks back to when she was young and running and playing. I know I think of how she was once young but is now old, although that makes her no less of a person. She is still my mum.

My mum is the most important person in my life. If I didn’t care about her, I would have moved on in my life a long time ago and, maybe, she would now have been in a home.

Thankfully, I can do what many can’t, and work from home and be a carer, though of course, it is restricting. But I am here because I care and love her. Every day when I hear the carers come in the morning and hear the clatter of the bed and them going about their business, I thank God that they are not calling up the stairs to me “come quickly, your mum...” I know that day will come and I dread it, but until then I tell her each day that she’s more of a blessing to me today than she was yesterday, or even 30 years ago. I tell her that she is greatly loved and that I’ll have her forever!

Anyone working in a caring profession should care for others in the same way they would for their own loved one, or ‘do to others as you would have them do to you’.

And so, when I see footage of supposed carers pulling and pushing her nose, having a laugh at her expense, saying things to her which she hears but can’t respond to, ‘throwing’ her from one side of the bed to the other as if, as another carer put it, she were a sack of potatoes, then it may make me wish that we could each deal out our own justice!

Thankfully, that isn’t the law and so we trust in the authorities to serve a fit punishment. In this couple’s report of what happened on their tea time call, they said that this ‘touching’ of the nose was innocent and to get a reaction because “the customer doesn’t talk, doesn’t do anything”. Well, so what if she doesn’t talk or do anything! She is alive and, as I’ve said, she can still hear, understand and has thoughts and emotions.

I wish no ill towards this couple, but it’s good that this has now been recorded and they will no longer be able to work in the care industry.

We don’t know how many other people they have done something similar to. I am thankful that I am here and could defend my defenceless mum against them.

Many people needing care won’t have that defence. I hope that other carers, or would-be carers will hear about this case, and understand, as most carers do, that this is a caring profession; that they are there to help people who need a little more help than most, that you must treat them right and, if you can’t do that, then choose another line of work or know that there are punishments for abuse.

“Thank you for taking your time to read. I’m thankful for the swiftness that everyone has worked on this case.