A carer accused of assaulting an 80-year-old Cullingworth woman is facing a retrial after the jury failed to agree a verdict.

Jurors at Bradford Crown Court acquitted Jacqueline Wright of one of three counts of assault. But after four hours of deliberation they could not agree a verdict on the two other assault charges - of causing bruising to Betty Sunderland's mouth by stuffing it with toilet roll, and of causing bruising to her leg.

Earlier, on the direction of judge Norman Jones QC, they had acquitted Wright of a further charge of causing grievous bodily harm to Miss Sunderland.

Giving evidence, Wright claimed the pensioner - who suffered from Parkinson's Disease - could be difficult and bombastic.

Wright wept in the witness box as she denied the assault allegations made to the police by Miss Sunderland in March last year.

"Some days she would be aware of what she was doing, other days she didn't know where she was or what time it was," said 43-year-old Wright. "In my opinion she didn't know if she was on this earth or Fuller's earth.

"I did my best for Betty. I never hit her. I couldn't hit her - it is not in my make-up."

The court heard that Miss Sunderland had died in October, but that her death was from natural causes and had nothing whatever to do with the alleged assaults.

Wright, from Barnoldswick, pleaded not guilty to all three charges of causing actual bodily harm.

The prosecution alleged that she committed the assaults in early 1997 when she was one of several carers looking after Miss Sunderland at her home.

In statements to the police, the pensioner claimed Wright had pushed toilet paper into her mouth, pulled a scarf tightly across her eyes, pulled her by her breasts and hit her across the leg with a metal ruler.

Wright told the court that as part of her job with the Keighley-based Dalesway Nursing Services agency she began caring for Miss Sunderland just after Christmas 1996. She said Miss Sunderland could be difficult and confused, and was not easy to get on with.

Wright said: "She could be a bit bombastic. She would say 'You are only here to run around after me' which was true really - she was paying so you had to do what she wanted."

She said it was not unusual for Miss Sunderland to have bruises on her body, as she fell a lot.

Referring to bruising found on the elderly woman's breast, Wright suggested it might have happened while she was standing up with her walking frame while being changed.

One day, after she had eaten some fish, there was a cut on her lip and she told Wright that it had been caused by a fish bone.

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