Rape case jail nurse ‘forged signature’

A MENTAL health nurse forged a doctor’s signature to get a prisoner medication before raping her, a court heard yesterday.

The 26-year-old who claims she was sexually attacked by Peter Barrowman told a jury he told her the doctor’s signature was easy to copy.

She also alleged that when she was raped by 35-year-old Barrowman in a doctor’s room in Cornton Vale Prison, she ‘didn’t have much energy’ because of the medication she was on.

The woman was giving evidence for a second day at Barrowman’s trial. He is accused of supplying three women with drugs and raping them.

He is also charged with attempting to rape one of the women and sexually assaulting a fourth woman.

Barrowman also faces drugs charges, and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards one of his alleged victims.

All the alleged offences are said to have taken place at Cornton Vale Prison between February and March 2014.

During cross-examination by defence solicitor advocate Liam Ewing, the woman said she had a clear recollection of him coming into her cell and talking to her about medication that would help her. She claimed that in another conversation with Barrowman, he said the doctor didn’t know she was being put on tablets.

‘He said something about Dr Craig doesn’t know that I was put on it, he had actually done it himself and signed it himself because Dr Craig’s signature is really easy, it’s really just a tick.’

Mr Ewing asked when the discussion about him forging the signature took place and she replied: ‘That happened after I got the medication.’

In earlier evidence, the alleged victim claimed she had been attacked by Barrowman in a doctor’s room and raped.

Mr Ewing put to her that she was not held down and that he did not have a weapon.

He said: ‘You didn’t shout or scream’. She answered: ‘I tried’.

She wept when Mr Ewing put to her: ‘But, as a matter of fact this happened to you and you made no attempt to leave.’

The witness replied: ‘It’s just... I can’t explain it.’

She claimed security staff at the prison did not immediately call the police because they wanted to deal with it ‘their way’ but that the police were later contacted.

She confirmed she spoke to the police but claimed she told them at the time it was ‘all blurry’ and it was what she thought happened.

She repeatedly told the jury that parts of the statement were wrong and that she contacted the police when her head was clearer to change it.

One of the excerpts read included Barrowman, from Stenhousemuir, Larbert, allegedly saying he ‘would be getting something back’ for the tablets. She told officers: ‘I stood up and tried to leave but he held me by the wrist and pulled me back on to the seat. He held me there by the wrist and his hand on my thigh so I couldn’t get up’.

The woman told the court: ‘I called them back up and said there was some parts I wanted to change.’

Barrowman denies the charges, and the trial at the High Court in Glasgow continues.

‘I stood up and tried to leave’