Facing life in jail, the child sex-attack hospital porter
A FORMER children’s hospital porter is facing life in jail for more than 500 sex attacks against boys as young as five, a judge said yesterday.
Predator Paul Farrell, who admitted 69 charges of sexual abuse on boys aged up to 16, groomed and abused eight victims for 35 years.
Many of the charges were “multiple offence counts” and represent at least 500 separate assaults, a court heard.
His offending was so extensive, it will take two days to hear all the disturbing facts before he is sentenced in May.
Farrell, 55, worked as a porter at world-renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital from 1994 to last year.
None of his victims was a patient at the central London hospital but Farrell used a linen room there to regularly abuse two boys after telling colleagues they were on work experience, Judge Noel Lucas QC heard.
The judge told Farrell he was considering giving him a life sentence.
Crown Prosecution Service senior lawyer Jane Ndeti said Farrell was a prolific sex attacker “who presented himself as a loving family man with a stable job in London’s biggest children’s hospital for nearly three decades”.
At Wood Green Crown Court yesterday, Farrell, from Camden, north London, admitted 69 charges against the eight boys between 1985 and last year.
They included indecency with a child, causing a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity and indecent assault. Others were left on the file.
Paul Douglass, prosecuting, said Farrell had a key to the hospital linen room, where he often worked.
After the hearing a hospital spokesman said: “Paul Farrell has admitted to a catalogue of truly awful crimes and we are deeply sorry that he was able to abuse his position and use our hospital to commit some of his offences.
“His actions are in direct contrast to everything we stand for as a children’s hospital.”
Although Farrell did not target children being treated at the hospital, it has set up a helpline with the NSPCC on 0800 101 996 for anyone with concerns about the case.