Posted 10 May 2022 - 16:58
Posted 10 May 2022 - 16:58
News
Nurse who sexually assaulted unconscious patient is jailed
Paul Grayson used his hospital workplace to commit multiple sex offences, which included photographing patients’ genitals, covert filming and up-skirting
Paul Grayson used his hospital workplace to commit multiple sex offences, which included photographing patients’ genitals, covert filming and up-skirting
A nurse who sexually assaulted a patient while they lay unconscious has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Paul Grayson, a former theatre nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was jailed on Tuesday at Sheffield Crown Court.
The sentence includes a 12-year custodial term with a four-year extended sentence because he was deemed a dangerous offender. He must serve at least two thirds in prison, with potential for the remainder to be on licence.
Mr Grayson, who has more than 25 years’ experience as a nurse, had pleaded guilty to 14 counts of voyeurism, three of sexual assault, one count of ‘up-skirting’, three counts of possession of indecent images and videos of children, and one of installing recording equipment for sexual gratification.
Nurse carefully planned his crimes
Sentencing Mr Grayson today, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC called his crimes sinister, deplorable and ‘a grotesque breach of trust’. He added that Mr Grayson had carefully planned his acts to satisfy his ‘perverted lusts’.
‘I am so broken, I am repulsed. It was no mistake, it wasn’t a fleeting moment of madness, it was your choice’
Words of a patient abused by Paul Grayson
‘You have betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in you. You have already been stripped as your status as a nurse by your professional body, as you should be,’ he judge said.
‘You have brought shame on a honourable profession by your egregious criminal conduct towards patients and fellow staff.’
Victims said their trust in healthcare professionals was destroyed
The court heard that Mr Grayson filmed the genitals of patients, including those of a teenager, while they were unconscious at the post-anaesthetic care unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. He also sexually assaulted a patient by moving her underwear.
Victims described in statement read out in court how they felt sickened and violated and now felt they could no longer trust healthcare workers.
Reading out their impact statement, one victim addressing Mr Grayson said: ‘I am so broken, I am repulsed. It was no mistake, it wasn’t a fleeting moment of madness, it was your choice. How can you be that evil?’
In addition, Mr Grayson had secretly installed recording equipment in the hospital to covertly film female colleagues using the toilet.
Pornography addiction
The court heard he had been addicted to pornography and this type of behaviour ‘for some time.’
Six of his offences took place away from his job and included possessing and making the images of children. He previously admitted filming women while they showered or used the toilet, making 123 indecent photographs and making three indecent videos of children.
During the hearing the former nurse repeatedly hung his head. Alongside his prison sentence Mr Grayson is also the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and life-long registration ban.
He has not worked at the Sheffield trust since his arrest in December 2020 and was suspended from the register by the Nurse and Midwifery Council in June 2021.
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