A residential care home has admitted liability after a pensioner choked to death in its care.

Beryl Newton, 81, died at Thameside Residential Care Home, West Molesey, on May 30, 2011, after eating breakfast unsupervised and choking.

Mrs Newton had been assessed by a speech and language therapist and was placed on a soft diet requiring full supervision when eating and drinking.

A care home employee, Leongina Domanicka, was entrusted with the care of Mrs Newton, despite having little understanding of English and a reluctance to keep records, a hearing at Guildford Crown Court heard on Monday, September.

Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of Anchor Trust Limited, admitted three charges relating to incidents between January 16, 2009, and June 9, 2011.

David Edwards, Anchor’s director of compliance, said: "We are deeply sorry for the failures in care in one of our homes, which led to the tragic death of Mrs Newton.

"This was an isolated incident which happened more than three years ago.

"At the time of the incident all of the appropriate authorities, including the police, social services and our regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), were notified and we co-operated fully with their investigation.

"Although this incident was described as 'a single moment of inattention', a number of important lessons have been learned and implemented.

"Our staff have received further enhanced training to ensure that this does not happen in the future and the care assistant involved was dismissed.

"The home was inspected by CQC last year and was found to be fully compliant.

"In its report the CQC said 'during this inspection we noted that staff treated people with kindness and were responsive to people’s needs'."

Anchor Trust admitted a failure to ensure the safety of a person in its care, failure to make a suitable risk assessment and failure to take into account Mrs Domanicka's capabilities in regards to health and safety.

The trust had already admitted two other charges of failure to ensure that employees are adequately health and safety trained, and failure to make sure Mrs Domanicka was fully prepared to deal with residents after returning to work following a period of illness.

The trial will continue for sentencing on Monday, September 29.