JURORS have heard for the first time from the manager of a Southampton care home facing allegations of neglect and ill-treatment of residents.

The prosecution claim residents of the Briars Retirement Home in Bitterne were left in urine-soaked beds, several suffered bed sores and ulcers, and others were so ill they should have been in nursing homes.

They claimed owner Annette Hopkins and manager Margaret Priest failed to adhere to the most basic standard of care and practice.

The home was closed down in September, 2007 after health professionals and police were granted an emergency court order.

In a recorded police interview, Priest said she had been appointed manager in 2004 after working there for about ten years as a care assistant, although she wasn’t fully qualified.

She said that at times she felt the management structure was weak and once offered to resign because there were family issues between the owner and her daughter who worked under her but was also a director.

Priest said her role was to manage “the floor downstairs,”

assess residents’ needs and ensure their care and carers’ training were in place but the increasing amount of paperwork mean’t she was spending less and less time on the floor.

Priest said she was “stretched” and added: “In the end I was going in at 4am and staying there until around 11pm because I needed to get it right. I’m not trying to say I was a martyr, I just needed to get it right but I didn’t have time to do it.”

Priest said she kept asking for help. “But who could I turn to? There was no one to turn to.” She also agreed that at the end, there were an inadequate number of staff for the amount of care needed.

Hopkins, 64, of Thorold Road, Bitterne, and Priest, 56, of Lydgate Green, Hightown, deny charges involving 16 residents.

Proceeding.