A 42-year-old nursing aide was today granted bail against a personal guarantee of €3,000  after he pleaded not guilty of slightly injuring a 92-year-old resident when he slapped him.

George Michael Spiteri of Fgura was granted bail on condition that he would not contact his colleagues or the relatives of the 92-year-old victim, a St Vincent de Paul resident.

The court appointed an expert to draw up a medical report on the victim.

During the hearing, Magistrate Ian Farrugia asked if any relatives of the victim were present.

Eight people, including two of the alleged victim's sons, stood up.

He explained to them that the fact that the accused was being granted bail did not mean that the case was over, it was just starting.

He also told them that without justifying what happened, nurses needed the people’s prayers and support for their work.

“Don’t forget that everyone is human and everyone makes mistakes.”

One of the relatives pointed out that she took care of people with a disability but she never hit anyone, to which the magistrate replied that if anyone in the hall said they never made a mistake, they would be lying.

Inspectors Joseph Mercieca and Spiridione Zammit prosecuted and Franco Galea and Lucio Sciriha appeared for the defence.

Meanwhile Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Justyne Caruana said the government wanted to convey the message that it was adopting a zero-tolerance policy on elderly abuse.

Addressing a hastily announced news conference at the Social Policy Ministry in Valletta, Dr Caruana noted that, since 2010 there had been more than 1,000 reports of abuse on the elderly. These ranged from physical, emotional, verbal, and financial abuse.

“There is no place for rotten apples and government will adopt all necessary measures to combat this abuse,” she said.

The parliamentary secretary said the news conference was called in the wake of the furore fuelled by allegations that a nursing aide had physically abused a 92-year-old patient at St Vincent de Paul home.

“Now is the right time to raise awareness that this is not the only case, as other cases of abuse are also perpetrated by relatives,” Dr Caruana said.

The Parliament Secretary said she was mostly hurt by social cases in hospitals and homes, involving elderly people whose children abandoned them.

She added that recent amendments to the law that extensively widened the definition of abuse and introduced harsher penalties had already been applied.

She urged people who were aware of any abuse, to come forward.

Asked if there was enough supervision in homes, she pointed out that a number of standard operational procedures had been introduced to improve monitoring.