A NURSE who ignored a mentally handicapped woman's head injury and told her she did not care if she got "run over," has been struck off.

Janet Hardy, 43, of Park Farm Road, Blackburn, sat down while the disturbed resident headbutted her office wall until she bled, it is claimed.

Hardy also fitted incontinence pads to two patients at the four bed residence run by Calderstones NHS Trust, for 24 hours, leaving one "sore and red", the hearing was told.'

She was yesterday found guilty of misconduct arising from her term as leader at the care home in Moor Lane, Whalley.

Hardy, who did not attended the hearing, faced allegations of misconduct at the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London.

It emerged she had a history of dishonesty and violence towards patients under her care.

Bosses who investigated complaints against Hardy, who worked for Calderstones NHS Trust for 26 years until August 2000, discovered she had claimed pay for five days which she had not worked.

David Glendinning, for the NMC, said resident B, a 52-year old former Calderstones patient, tried to enter Hardy's office but she "removed" her.

"The resident began to bang her head very hard on the dividing wall between the lounge and the office for several minutes. In fact she banged her forehead so hard she caused it to bleed," he said.

Resident B then pulled the hair of resident C, a woman in her 30s with poor eyesight.

Hardy and a colleague managed to get resident B on to a bed, where they pinned her down, holding her by her arms for several minutes.

"Resident B said she wanted to go out on her own into the road," said Mr Glendinning. "The witness will tell you resident B has minimal road sense and Mrs Hardy's reaction was she did not care if resident B went out on her own and was run over."

Hardy was found guilty of misconduct between February and July 2000, when she resigned.

She was cleared of inappropriately restraining resident B, but found guilty of four charges relating to the defrauding the trust and harming residents.

Miss Eunice Foster, chairman of the NMC panel, said: "We have removed her name in the interests of public protection."

She said Hardy had not learned from her previous experiences. Five years earlier she was disciplined following allegations of manhandling patients in Calderstones Hospital.

An internal inquiry revealed she had failed to administer medication to a patient on more than one occasion and physically abused another resident in her care.

Hardy was downgraded to a nursing assistant and given a final written warning.

In June last year she was given a conditional discharge following a conviction at Blackburn Magistrates' Court for obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.