NURSING HOME SEX ATTACKER IS LET OFF JAIL

Suspended sentence for care worker, 54, who filmed vile assault

A CARE home worker who filmed himself sexually assaulting two vulnerable residents walked free yesterday after receiving a suspended jail sentence.

The offences only came to light after Peter Hilliard, 54, posted footage of the second vile assault to social media by accident.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan noted that Hilliard had lost his job and was now unemployable in the health sector. He handed down an 18-month suspended sentence.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard

that after his arrest, Hilliard had told gardaí he felt bad about his actions and said: ‘I thought about killing myself.’

Hilliard had recorded himself touching the breasts of a female resident at Bloomfield nursing home on Stocking Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

That offence came to light in June 2016 after a colleague saw a video on Hilliard’s Facebook page of him assaulting an elderly resident. The video also showed another male in the room.

Hilliard later told gardaí that he had uploaded the video footage accidentally because he didn’t know how to operate his smartphone. The staff member contacted gardaí, who went to Hilliard’s home at Bolbrook Grove, Tallaght, Dublin, and seized laptops and mobile phones.

A digital trawl of the equipment uncovered a second video filmed sometime after February 2013, in which Hilliard carried out a similar attack on another resident. Both victims are women, and one of them is believed to have a degenerative neurological disease.

Hilliard, who pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault between February 2013 and June 2016 at Bloomfield nursing home, had been suffering from sleep deprivation at the time of the offences. Defending Hilliard, Kieran Kelly BL told the court that his client was sorry for his actions.

Two victim-impact statements handed into the court were not read out.

Judge O’Sullivan suspended a sentence of 18 months on condition that Hilliard attend therapy.

He also ordered that Hilliard place himself under the supervision of the Probation Service for 18 months.