Hidden camera footage of a nurse punching and kicking an elderly woman at an upmarket frail care home has revealed the full extent of the brutal beating. The sustained assault left 84-year-old Lily Kirchmann resident Hope Shepherd with severe injuries including a black eye and extensive bruising to her body.Shepherd last year suffered an unexplained broken arm, which led to her family installing a secret camera in her room. She was unable to speak of or write about what was happening to her. Yesterday, Ncediswa Mkenkcele, 40, appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court facing charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. She was not asked to plead and the case was postponed until June 5 for further investigation. She was released on warning.Mkenkcele of Duncan Village was employed as a caregiver and resigned soon after the footage surfaced. She was arrested at her home in Duncan Village after Cambridge police viewed the hidden camera footage.The hidden camera was placed inside a television set in Shepherd’sbedroom on December 31 by her daughter Bernice Robertson, who becamesuspicious of her mother’s constant and unexplained injuries. Whenvisiting her mother in February, Robertson noticed her mother had ablack eye and immediately downloaded the footage. Clips show theassaults, which took place on February 3 and 23. In the video, seen bythe Daily Dispatch, Shepherd is assaulted with open hands, fists andelbows by a caregiver. In one clip the caregiver stops the assaults toclose the door and curtains in Shepherd’s room before she continuesassaulting the frail pensioner, even dishing out a fly-kick to thestomach. Shepherd’s feeble attempts to fight back are met with moreviolence. She is grabbed by her hair and roughly thrown down on herbed, where the assault continues. In another clip the caregiver is seensmashing her elbow into the elderly woman’s head and back. The footagealso shows the woman taking a deodorant can and bashing it againstShepherd’s head, before spraying its contents into a breathing hole inShepherd’s throat. The elderly woman suffers from throat cancer.Sporting blue denim trousers and a white top, Mkenkcele showed littleemotion during her court appearance yesterday.Robertson has since removed her mother from Lily Kirchmann, where she had been paying R14000 a month.Duringyesterday’s court proceedings, state prosecutor Thulani Solani toldmagistrate Leon Kemp police would be able to finalise theirinvestigation before Mkenkcele’s next court appearance. Police spokesmanCaptain Mluleki Mbi said: “We welcome the fact that the docket is goingto be sent back to us with recommendations. The prosecutor might havefelt that, as things stand, we don’t have a watertight case and wants usto do more.” Outside court a neatly dressed man and woman attempted toshield Mkenkcele from a Dispatch photographer. The man, walking next toher, had organised for a meter taxi to pick Mkenkcele up near theentrance, and it sped away with her.Berea Gardens Retirement Foundation, which manages Lily Kirchmann, said it had launched an internal investigation.