Man assaulted NHS worker who was helping him
AN ALCOHOLIC sexually assaulted an experienced NHS worker who was looking after him when he fell and injured his head.
Neil Jones made unacceptable comments about the woman’s body as she manoeuvred his wheelchair before sliding his hand up her leg and sexually assaulting her.
Cardiff Crown Court heard he said: “What I would like to do with that arse.”
Laura Shepherd, prosecuting, told the court the victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was an experienced NHS worker.
The court heard Jones was taken to hospital on the evening of February 19 while he was intoxicated after falling and injuring his head.
Prosecutors said he asked to go to the toilet and was put in a wheelchair. He commented: “Look at her arse.”
The victim told him she did not want to be spoken to like that, but he carried on. Ms Shepherd said: “She felt his hand moving up her leg.”
The court heard he sexually assaulted her and she grabbed his hand, telling him: “Don’t do that. Touching me like that.” The court heard that Jones claimed he did not mean to.
Prosecutors said the victim had to take time off work and could not stop thinking
In a statement read out at court, she said she had gained confidence in her job over time, but: “I now feel unsettled in my role.”
She added: “Someone I was there to help took advantage of me.”
The woman said her family now worry about her at work and she feels vulnerable doing her job.
When he was interviewed, the defendant said he could not remember the incident and could not be responsible because he was “not that sort of person”.
Prosecutors said about eight weeks before that incident, he was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour after police received a report he was outside Wedgewood Court in Caerphilly staggering and about what happened. slurring his words. On January 23 he was caught in Caerphilly with cannabis tucked down his tracksuit.
Ms Shepherd said he had 78 previous offences on his record and was in breach of a suspended sentence, imposed in September 2019 for affray.
Jones, 38, from Brookland Road in Pontymister, Risca, admitted drunk and disorderly behaviour, possessing cannabis and sexual assault.
Lowri Wynn Morgan, defending, said her client had been addicted to alcohol since he was 16, but has sought help in custody and is taking steps to address his addiction.
She asked for credit for his guilty pleas and said Jones wished to apologise to the victim.
Judge Richard Williams told the defendant: “Your apology is far too late to make any material difference.”
He noted the victim was patient and professional as she tried to help him, despite his behaviour.
The victim said Jones’ behaviour was “totally out of order” and the judge added: “In fact, what you did was outrageous.”
He noted she had to have time of work “at a time when frontline NHS staff have been doing their best to look after us in the most challenging circumstances we have known in peace time”.
Jones was jailed for 14 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years.