Man who sexually assaulted nurse put under curfew after breaching probation order
A “CREEPY” alcoholic who smirked as he sexually assaulted a nurse at the Royal Derby Hospital has now breached his suspended sentence.
Derby Crown Court was told that Wit Kobialka forgot to turn up to two probation appointments because his treatment for getting him off the booze left him with memory problems.
Will Bennett, his barrister, told the hearing how his client “is not trying to wriggle out of his obligation” and is “anxious to getting back” to his recovery.
He said: “For the last two months he’s been totally sober and he has managed to get on top of his alcohol problems. The defendant has stopped drinking more quickly than advised by the doctors and that has left him with memory problems. At the moment he is signed off from work.”
Last year Kobialka was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a nurse who was treating him at the hospital. He also admitted a second count of attempted sexual assault of another nurse on the same evening.
That hearing was told how Kobialka, of Radbourne Street, stroked the first healthcare worker’s thigh before making a
“very determined effort” to reach her private parts with his hand. That victim said the experience made her feel “violated” and that the 35-yearold “treated me like a piece of meat”.
But moments later he tried to grab the breasts of a second nurse as she wheeled him back from a head scan.
Handing Kobialka the suspended jail sentence, Recorder William Harbage QC said: “Those two women were working in a hospital helping and caring for the sick.
“Because of that they often work alone and close to the patients they treat and that makes them particularly vulnerable. One of the victims said she felt violated by what you did and the second said she felt disgusted at what you did to her, as any right-thinking person would be.”
Adam Pearson, prosecuting that case, said Kobialka was in the accident and emergency department of the Royal Derby on May 19, 2020, having suffered a head wound.
He said at around 9pm he was alone in a cubicle with the first nurse when she was trying to cannulate him (introduce a needle drip) first to the arm and then to the back of the hand.
Mr Pearson said: “He was drunk and in her own words was somewhat creepy. He grabbed her hand and she was able to extricate it, but he then placed his hand on her left inner thigh and moved it quickly upwards towards her private parts. She used both hands to push it down, but said he made a very determined effort. She said he had a smirk on his face as he did it.”
Mr Pearson said the first victim left the cubicle and reported what had happened to her ward sister. He said a second student nurse wheeled Kobialka from the cubicle to have a CT scan on his head, and on the way back from that he tried to grab her. Mr Pearson said: “She was pushing the trolley from the head end and he suddenly twisted his body and reached with his hand trying to grab her breasts.
“She was already on guard after hearing what had happened to the first nurse, so was quickly able to step back.” Mr Pearson said the police were called, interviewed both nurses and then arrested Kobialka at his home in the early hours of the following morning. He said he had been drinking all of that day and could not remember what had happened at the hospital.
As part of his suspended sentence, Kobialka was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to attend a number of probation appointments. But this week’s hearing heard he failed to do the latter twice this year.
Judge Shaun Smith QC handed Kobialka a six-month electronically-monitored curfew confining him to his address each evening between 7pm and 7am.
He told him: “This order has sort of worked and sort of not worked, but you have not got into any more trouble.”
He has stopped drinking more quickly than advised by the doctors and that has left him with memory problems. Will Bennett