Rape accused medic has left the Bons

THE public are being assured that the Bon Secours Hospital in Tralee is safe, following an allegation that a patient was raped by a medic.

Gardaí are investigating a claim that a medic at the hospital raped a 61-year-old female patient after she underwent a scan on Saturday, September 10. The medic, who has since ceased working at the private hospital, has denied the allegations against him.

Alliance Medical – who employed the accused man – have launched their own internal enquiry into the incident.

The company says the man, who had worked at the hospital since 2009 but was not employed by Bon Secours Hospitals, is no longer employed by them and no longer works at the hospital. Management at Bon Secours Tralee have declined to comment.

THE company which runs the MRI and CT scanning service at Tralee’s Bon Secours Hospital has launched a major internal enquiry after one of its employees was accused of raping a 61-year-old woman at the hospital.

The woman claims she was raped by the medic on Saturday, September 10, as she was changing into her clothes having undergone a scan.

Soon after the alleged attack the woman reported the incident to gardaí who interviewed the accused man in the MRI scanning suite at the hospital.

The woman was taken to Cork University Hospital where she was forensically examined at CUH’s sexual assault clinic. She made a formal complaint to gardaí in Tralee later last week.

Gardaí have interviewed a number of people in connection with the incident and CCTV footage from the hospital has also been examined.

While there is no camera in the changing room where the woman alleges she was raped, there are cameras in neighbouring areas.

A full forensic examination of the scene has also been carried out and a file on the case is being prepared for the DPP.

The accused man has not been charged and it is understood that when approached by gardaí about the allegation he strongly denied any wrongdoing. The man has a clean employment record and had undergone all necessary Garda vetting procedures.

While it had been reported that the accused man had left the country, The Kerryman understands he is still in the Tralee area.

Although he had worked at the hospital since 2009, the accused man is not an employee of Bon Secours Hospitals.

At the time of the alleged attack the medic – who was involved in diagnostics – was a full time employee of Alliance Medical, the company contracted to operate scanning services at Bon Secours in Tralee. The UK-based firm currently has 13 staff at the Tralee hospital.

The medic at the centre of the case is no longer an employee of Alliance Medical and he is no longer working at the hospital.

Alliance Medical has launched an internal investigation into the matter and in the last week two directors from its parent company visited the hospital to investigate the case.

The company has also released a statement on the matter saysing that a full internal investigation into the alleged incident is being conducted.

“There is an ongoing Gardaí investigation and the company is co-operating fully with this. As a result, we are unable to comment further.”

Bon Secours Tralee has declined to comment on the case and the hospital is referring all media enquiries to Alliance Medical.