Section 44 of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 introduced a new offence of ill treatment of a person who lacks capacity by someone who is caring for them or acting as a deputy or attorney for them. That person can be guilty of ill treatment if they have deliberately ill treated a person who lacks capacity, or been reckless as to whether they were ill treating the person or not. It does not matter whether the behaviour was likely to cause, or actually caused, harm or damage to the victim’s health.

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