A CARER jailed for the manslaughter of an 84-year-old veteran used him as a “easy meal ticket”, a crown court judge has said.

Judge Jane Miller QC criticised Izabela Dauti’s behaviour towards friend and neighbour Malcolm Cox as she jailed her for four and half years.

Today (Thursday) at Winchester Crown Court Dauti, of Bell Road, Andover was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after she left Mr Cox to bleed to death on her hallway floor in November 2016.

Judge Miller told Dauti as she sat in the dock that there was “no doubt” Mr Cox was “flattered by your interest and your common fondness for drinking”, but that her actions were “callous and persistent”.

She said to the mother of one that she had used Mr Cox to “support your lifestyle”, adding: “He was an easy meal ticket for you and you were in debt”.

Describing Dauti’s craving for alcohol, Judge Miller told the court that it had got to a stage where social services had become involved and Dauti's daughter had to live with her grandparents.

As part of the involvement of social services Dauti was told that Mr Cox was classed as an “undesirable” as he had a conviction for possessing indecent images and was not allowed to visit Dauti’s house.

And Judge Miller said she believed this explained some of Dauti’s actions on the night of November 14 and into the morning of November 15 by calling her former lover Gwyn Price to help remove Mr Cox from the flat and shouting: “dirty old man get him [Mr Cox] out” as she was scared of the organisation discovering that Mr Cox had visited.

After her arrest Judge Miller said Dauti gave several accounts and in various prepared statements she started “spreading the blame” saying that Mr Cox already had blood on him when he visited her house and then saying that an altercation had taken place between Mr Cox and Mr Price.

And whilst she accepted that Dauti was remorseful for her actions she deserved “condemnation and punishment”.