Nurse made sordid videos of women under anaesthetic
A MALE nurse sexually assaulted patients while they were still unconscious following hospital operations, a court heard yesterday.
Paul Grayson, 51, also recorded indecent videos of his victims as he abused his position of care in the ‘grossest’ possible way.
He took advantage of the four female patients at their most vulnerable when they were still under general anaesthetic following surgery, Sheffield Crown Court heard. All four were filmed beneath their underwear and two were sexually assaulted by touching at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.
The senior nurse pleaded guilty to a string of charges that also included taking and possessing indecent images of children.
And he committed offences of voyeurism against five female colleagues by secretly filming them in hospital toilets.
Grayson, from Nether Edge, Sheffield, was in tears for much of yesterday’s hearing as a judge told him he is facing a lengthy prison sentence. In all, he pleaded guilty to 23 offences of voyeurism, sexual assault, taking indecent images of a child and possessing indecent images of children.
Michael Smith, prosecuting, said the shocking crimes came to light when a young woman who knew him personally became suspicious of him filming her and found a ‘library’ of images of her on hard drives and memory sticks he had hidden.
She had been recorded naked by hidden cameras, including some when she was a child, the court heard. Images of other women were also found and police launched an investigation. The offences spanned a period of a decade up to his arrest in December 2020, the court was told.
Mr Smith said Grayson started at the hospital in 1994 and rose to become a charge nurse – the male equivalent of a sister. He worked on a one-toone basis with patients both before and after surgery.
Judge Jeremy Richardson, QC, said he was in a position of ‘very considerable responsibility’. Videos handed to police showed Grayson touched two unconscious patients while moving their underwear to film their bodies.
One victim said she is due to have another operation at another hospital but ‘can’t bring myself to go because I will have to be unconscious’.
Alex Menary, defending, said his client ‘appears in the dock a broken man’, adding: ‘It was the grossest abuse of trust.’
Grayson is due to be sentenced today.