These incidents occurred across various care homes and facilities, raising concerns about the oversight and safeguarding practices meant to protect some of the country's most vulnerable individuals.
In September, Shaun Vincent, 36, from Greater Manchester was jailed after admitting sexual offences against a teenager. The care worker from Wigan pleaded guilty to making unwanted sexual advances, using sexual language and committing sexual offences against her.
In Sutton-in-Ashfield, healthcare assistant Rebecca Welsh was jailed in September for negligence after a patient at a mental health unit took her own life, after she failed to carry out appropriate observations on the welfare of Amelia Rose at Millbrook Mental Health Unit.
In a more recent case, 69-year-old Naguib Lootfun was jailed for sexually abused a vulnerable patient while working for an assisted living facility. Suspicions about his behaviour were raised on May 8 after colleagues found an empty condom wrapper discarded in a bedroom at the premises after he had been on a night shift.
Here are some of the most horrific crimes involving the care workers reported this year.
9. Benjamin Howard
Benjamin Howard, a care home manager from Northampton, admitted stealing more than £250,000 from vulnerable residents to pay off his gambling debts. The 35-year-old, of Breach Close, Brixworth, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison | Northamptonshire Police Photo: Northamptonshire Police