‘Sex addict’ nurse spared prison for groping colleague
Senior staff member kept touching woman’s legs as he drove her home
A SENIOR nurse has been spared jail for groping a co-worker in his car after “persistently” offering the woman a lift.
Leonard Iliuta, 36, told the victim he was “a sex addict” and questioned her about her love life before touching her on the thigh several times, Dublin District Court was told.
He pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the healthcare worker during the incident, which happened within the past five years.
However Iliuta, of Seaview Mews,
Seatown West,
Dublin, was convicted following a non-jury hearing before Judge John
Hughes, who found his denials were “not credible”.
After hearing a mitigation plea and noting the victim’s impact statement, he imposed a four-month sentence, suspended on the condition Iliuta did not reoffend in the next two years.
During this time, he must remain on supervised probation and attend an offence-related treatment course.
Judge Hughes said Iliuta was in a position of responsibility and more senior in work to the victim and it was clear the incident had significantly affected her. He also ordered him to pay her €2,000 compensation.
The woman told the sentence hearing it had been “like carrying a ton of brick, and it has been put down”.
Defence counsel Garrett Casey said his client did not accept the verdict.
He told the court Iliuta, a father of two, was from Romania but came to Ireland nine years ago and held the position of assistant director of nursing.
Earlier, the woman told how she had been working the same shifts as Iliuta and usually left before him to avoid his “quite persistent” offers of a lift.
On the day of the incident, she “reluctantly” accepted.
Initially they chatted about him having a left-hand drive car, she said, but during the journey the “conversation shifted to a kind of sexual nature” and he brought up the subject of addiction. The woman testified “he stated he was a sex addict and there was nothing he had not done”, including cheating on his girlfriend, threesomes and that “he had previously been with a man”.
The victim said she was uncomfortable and that Iliuta “put his hand on my left knee, lingered for a few seconds and then put it back on the gear stick”.
She added that every time he touched her leg, his hand lingered and it started to go up, close to her vagina.
She recalled that the car reached traffic lights and she asked to get out but he pulled her legs back towards him when she tried to move away.
When they reached her home, he started talking about going for a drink and asked if there was anyone in.
The court heard the woman remembered being “fairly shaken up” when she entered her house and immediately told her flatmate what happened. She then notified gardai and her employer.
She no longer works with Iliuta, who had no prior criminal convictions.
Iliuta rejected the allegations and denied talking about sex. He claimed she told him she was stressed and she and others at work were taking drugs.
Asked if he notified his employer about claims of drug abuse among workers, he said no because he did not want to judge and that it was “none of my business”.
He stated he was a sex addict and that there was nothing he had not done VICTIM DUBLIN DISTRICT COURT