A carer has been convicted after she was filmed spraying deodorant into an elderly dementia patient's face by a spy camera hidden by the grandmother's family.

Susan Draper, 43, can be seen laughing after covering 78-year-old Betty Boylan with Impulse body spray, telling her colleague: "It's better than poo."

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The vulnerable pensioner, who had worked as a nurse herself, can also be heard gurgling as the deodorant is sprayed in her direction.

Draper, of Kingstanding, Birmingham, denied a charge of ill treatment in a position of care but was convicted after the seven-minute clip was played to magistrates.

She was also fired from the Bupa-run Perry Locks Care Home in Birmingham, where she had worked for 17 years.

"During the course of the spraying, words are used by Betty which the prosecution say are 'stop it,'" prosecutor Shawn Williams told Birmingham Magistrates' Court, as reported by The Birmingham Mail.

"She gurgles and coughs. She is immobile and is a highly vulnerable individual. When a second carer comes into shot and waves her hands to say the spray had gone in her mouth, the defendant laughs and says 'it's better than poo.'"

He added: "A high degree of trust is placed in the hands of those that care for the elderly. Most of that work is done and acquitted to a very high standard. In this case the prosecution say the care fell well below that. Dehumanising the individual. The prosecution say that is ill-treatment."

Boylan's family installed the £200 hidden camera after finding bruises on her body in August 2016.

Draper is the second person to be convicted over the pensioner's care after another nurse, Bina Begum, was filmed separately pulling Boylan up by the head to get her to sit up.

Draper said she never meant to hurt anyone, telling the court: "I just wanted her to smell and look nice and presentable. I did not hurt Betty, I love her so much.

"I am not evil. I didn't appeal against my sacking because I had just had enough. I wouldn't say I was ashamed, I was shocked when I saw the CCTV footage."

Draper will be sentenced on 24 July. The offence has a maximum sentence of five years in jail.