Indian-origin woman's sex assault jail term increased in UK

London: A 25-year-old Indian-origin care home worker who sexually assaulted elderly patients, including a 101-year-old woman, has had her jail term increased to 15 years from the previous 10 years.

Christina Sethi targeted three victims, one male and two female, at a care home in Devon, south-west England, between January 2014 and May this year.

She also filmed the assaults on her mobile phone before sharing them with her boyfriend.

Plymouth Crown Court had sentenced her to 10 years after a trial in August. However, after a reference to the Court of Appeal, three senior judges decided to hike the sentence.

Justice Hallett said 15 years is the absolute minimum Sethi should have been given.

Sethi deliberately targeted victims suffering from dementia, the oldest of whom was a 101-year-old female.

One of her victims has died since the incident. Sethi had admitted three counts of sexual assault and two of assault by penetration in July.

During the sentencing, judge Richard Stead had said she had committed "horrific abuse of three vulnerable and elderly victims who were in a care home under your care."

"You humiliated three elderly people who trusted you," he said.

Devon and Cornwall Police described Sethi's actions as "incomprehensible."

"Sethi committed crimes that most ordinary people could never comprehend. This depraved individual carried out shocking acts of abuse and grossly abused her position at the care home.

"She committed these atrocious acts on the people she had been trusted to care for and targeted their vulnerabilities in order to satisfy her own sexual deviance," Detective Inspector Ed Wright said.

The abuse came to light when a man who knew Sethi bought a computer from her and found deleted films of the sexual assaults which he reported to police.

The video files showed her sexually abusing two elderly female residents, one of whom was recorded helplessly asking, "What are you doing to me?".

Sethi sent the footage to her boyfriend, who she said during police interviews she loved and would do anything for.

A 32-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit sexual assault has since been released without charge.