Patient, 23, groped by hospital cleaner while she lay drugged in bed

A WOMAN was groped by a cleaner as she lay helpless in her bed at an NHS hospital.

The victim, then 23, had taken strong painkillers and was drowsy when Ahmed Ismail, 44, attacked her.

Yesterday she spoke out after receiving a five-figure payout from the hospital.

She had reported concerns about Ismail, who was employed through private contractor Sodexo, after he made inappropriate comments to her a month before the assaults – but no action was taken.

The woman, from South Manchester, said: ‘I was outside the ward and he asked me if I had children and insinuated I could have his children.

‘He kissed my arm and hand so I walked back inside because I felt awkward.

‘Later that day I was stood at the nurse’s station when he asked me to meet him outside. I told a nurse what had happened and she said, “Yeah, he is like that with the staff too, he is a bit strange.”’

The victim was told the incident would be Jailed: Cleaner Ahmed Ismail, 44 documented but a few weeks later, when she was back at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, he came into her private room and hugged her.

The next day he entered her room again with another man, put his arms around her, kissed her arm and neck and laid his head on her chest. The woman, who was receiving treatment for a urinary problem, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when he came into my room. I felt really vulnerable as his friend was stood at the door.

‘I was only wearing a vest and pyjama bottoms so felt very exposed. Luckily a nurse came in and he stopped and walked out.

‘This nurse was really helpful and told me to contact the police. I found out later that the cleaner didn’t work in my part of the hospital. He should have been in a different zone and I don’t know why he was where he was or how he found me.’

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was now too scared to go back to the hospital for treatment or even leave the house by herself.

She said: ‘I used to be really bubbly and, as I come from a very large family, I’d always wanted that for myself. There’s no way I can imagine that happening now.’

Ismail was jailed for 18 months in April 2016 after being found guilty of sexual assault. Magistrates in Manchester were told the assaults took place in July 2014.

Lawyer Kim Harrison, of Slater and Gordon, who helped the woman, now 27, secure the damages, said: ‘My client was failed on so many levels.

‘As well as the man who attacked her, the people she reported concerns to failed to take adequate measures to protect her until after she had

‘Failed on so many levels’

been assaulted on more than one occasion.

‘It beggars belief that, in this day and age, a man can behave so inappropriately and make a woman feel so uncomfortable, only to have his behaviour brushed off as that is “just what he’s like”.’

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, apologised to the woman and added: ‘Ahmed Ismail was temporarily employed as a cleaner through one of our partner agencies and was immediately suspended. As soon as our partner agency was made aware of the police investigation, Ahmed Ismail was dismissed.’

Sodexo did not respond to a request for a comment.