By Amar Mehta - Sky News - 10.03.2022 - [UK] - [Paul Grayson]
A hospital nurse who filmed up the gowns of unconscious patients and recorded staff using the toilet at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital has been jailed for 12 years. Paul Grayson, 51, "brought shame on an honourable profession", according to Judge Jeremy Richardson QC and was told he must serve an extended licence period of four years when he is released.
Mr Richardson, sitting at Sheffield Crown Court, said four patients who were recovering from surgery were targeted by Grayson at the Yorkshire hospital and one of the patients was never been identified from footage.
The court heard how the charge nurse with over 25 years' experience, also pleaded guilty to filming five nurses using a toilet at the hospital. He also videoed two other young women who were not connected to the hospital using hidden cameras.
“You have betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in you," Mr Richardson QC said. "You have already been stripped of your status as a nurse by your professional body. So you should be. "You have brought shame on an honourable professional by your egregious criminal conduct."
Victim secretly filmed in the shower for years
Earlier this week the court heard that one victim was secretly filmed in the shower by Grayson for a number of years. She appeared in court and told him his "sick and disgusting perversions" and "evil actions" were crimes that "have torn me into pieces". The woman's suspicions led her to conduct an investigation, where she found a stash of computer files, "curated" into folders.
One victim was unconscious after an eye operation when Grayson filmed her up her own gown and could be seen moving her underwear, the court heard. She told police she had "put her trust in staff at the hospital to keep her safe" and said that she has since been due to have an operation at another hospital but she "can't bring myself to go".
Nurse 'humiliated' after being filmed in the toilet
Prosecutors said one nurse was filmed in the toilet at the hospital and said she had been left "mortified, embarrassed and humiliated".
Grayson, of Woodstock Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to 14 charges of voyeurism, three sexual assaults, one charge of upskirting, one of taking indecent images of a child, one of installing recording equipment for the purposes of sexual gratification and three of possessing indecent images of children. The offences in the hospital took place between 2017 and 2020, but there was evidence the defendant had been filming women since 2012, the court was told.
Professor Chris Morley, chief nurse at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "What Paul Grayson did was truly despicable and the fact that he deliberately abused the trust he was given as a nurse and work colleague is unforgivable. "We have worked tirelessly with the police on the investigation and whilst today's sentence will not make what happened any less distressing for those women he abused, I hope it goes some way to deliver justice on their behalf." If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.