A young woman told a jury that a healthcare assistant put his number into her phone after undressing her and washing her breasts and backside at a midlands medical facility.<\/p>\n
The accused, a man in his 50s who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexually assaulting the then 17-year-old girl, who suffered from depression and had needed treatment following an overdose of tablets.<\/p>\n
The trial continued on Wednesday before Judge Cephas Power and a jury of five women and seven men at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court.<\/p>\n
The jury was told that the teenager had been assigned as an \u201cindependent patient\u201d, meaning she did not require assistance with washing or dressing. <\/p>\n
Giving evidence on day two of the trial, the young woman said she had suffered from depression and anxiety, was scrolling through social media, and felt very vulnerable at the time.<\/p>\n
She told the court: \u201cEverything seemed to get to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She shared a room with another patient, a woman in her 60s. She testified that the accused entered the room that morning with a \u201cbig smile,\u201d was very friendly, and said he would look after them.<\/p>\n
The witness said he told her she should have a shower, but she wanted to wait for her mother first. <\/p>\n
When he suggested washing her face instead, she agreed because she thought it might have been dirty.<\/p>\n
She said the accused pulled the curtains around her bed and had a basin of warm water, tissues, and Johnson\u2019s Baby Wash. After he started washing her face, she said he then unbuttoned her top to get her arms out, but could not because she had blocked him.<\/p>\n
She alleged that he proceeded to lean over and unclasp her bra. The jury heard he washed her arms, and then started to wash her breasts.<\/p>\n
She further stated she had no top on when she was told to stand, and he pulled down her pyjama bottoms. <\/p>\n
The witness said he told her to wash her front while he looked away. The complainant thought he only pretended to turn away, and she gave her front a quick wipe.<\/p>\n
She said he told her she had not done a good job and alleged that he then started washing and cleaning her backside in a circular motion.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, she said he put her leggings on her and started to dress her, but did not put on any underwear even though she had a fresh set in her bag. <\/p>\n
She told the court that he put her bra back on her and then started to massage her back. <\/p>\n
The young woman said that she lay face down on her tummy at the time, and she told him it was nice to get him to stop.<\/p>\n
She said he asked for her number, then put his contact number into her phone, and gave it back to her. She said she intended to block him the minute after he left.<\/p>\n
The young woman alleged that he told her that when she got out, they could go for Chinese food.<\/p>\n
Cross-examined by the defence senior counsel Dara Foynes, she rejected a proposition that while she had given evidence that the accused used his left hand, he actually never used that arm. <\/p>\n
The older woman in the ward told the trial that the healthcare worker initially came into the room \u201cfull of the joys of life\u201d and dancing, describing his behaviour as \u201cover the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
She testified that after he finished with the girl, he came over to wash her, but was \u201ctoo familiar\u201d. <\/p>\n
She told the court that his hands moved from her shoulder over to her breast area, and he went to take off her bra and touched her stomach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI swung at him,\u201d she told the court, adding that she did not make contact with the accused.<\/p>\n
The trial was told she did not see what had happened around the girl\u2019s bed because the privacy curtains had been pulled.<\/p>\n
The jury heard that the second woman later noticed the girl\u2019s demeanour had completely changed afterwards.<\/p>\n
She testified that it was \u201cfrightening to see her like this\u201d and that she knew something had happened to her. She described the girl as a \u201chappy-go-lucky\u201d child.<\/p>\n
Under cross-examination, the witness agreed she had known the complainant only a short time, but explained that during that time she had spoken about what the teenager wanted to do in life. <\/p>\n
The complainant\u2019s mother told the court that her daughter had told her what had happened when she arrived at the hospital later that day, and she noticed that she was \u201cvery shook\u201d. The mother then reported it to more senior staff that day.<\/p>\n
A staff director told the trial that nurses give instructions to the agency healthcare workers who do not have access to medical notes. The director said their role was to provide feeding, hydration, and personal care, and that they are informed of the patient\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n
The defence says there was a communication breakdown. The court heard the accused maintains that he only washed her face, arms, and armpits,<\/p>\n
The trial continues on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young woman told a jury that a healthcare assistant put his number into her phone after undressing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,107604,68636,18,226650,43771,13,14,6,19,17,717,78427,11,12,4164,15,16,5,15144,7,8],"class_list":["post-575956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-civil-rights","tag-courthouse","tag-eire","tag-equal-arm-balance","tag-equality","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-justice","tag-justice-concept","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-law","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-statue","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116887077725477963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}