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SINGAPORE: A former nurse at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) charged with caring for patients, including those with serious and suicidal mental illnesses, abused her position and committed sexual crimes against them.
The 36-year-old man, who cannot be identified due to court-imposed gag orders, was sentenced Monday (December 28) to four years, nine months and a week in jail and 10 strokes of the baton.
He sexually abused patients and took videos of them when they were naked. At the time of the incident, some of its victims were being held in the High Dependency Psychiatric Care Unit, a highly specialized ward for patients with active, suicidal or serious mental illnesses.
Other victims include her colleagues at the time and a pregnant woman who responded to an ad she posted for a model photo shoot.
The man was captured in March this year by a victim who saw him take video of her on an escalator at a train station.
Police arrested the man on March 4 of this year at IMH and confiscated his phones. Four types of videos were found in them: videos under the skirts of IMH staff and members of the public, videos of IMH nurses changing, videos of IMH patients showering, and videos of defendants sexually abusing IMH patients.
As part of his patient care duties in the High Dependency Psychiatric Care Unit, the man had to watch patients in the shower to make sure they did not commit acts of self-harm.
Nurses are usually assigned to rooms of their corresponding gender, but the nurse in charge of the shift will occasionally ask the man to perform tasks in the women’s room.
Investigations found that he had filmed nine patients in the unit.
He also sexually abused a victim in the unit who had been immobilized in a hospital bed and filmed himself committing the crime.
The man also outraged the modesty of another patient who had been sedated for assault.
In another incident, the man posted an online ad for a pregnant model for a photoshoot. He asked the woman who responded to the ad to wear a dress that clearly showed her pregnancy and met her at Chinese Gardens.
While signaling her to stay away from him, the man took five videos up the pregnant woman’s skirt before posting them to a password-protecting app.
The man, married with four children, pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual abuse, insulting a woman’s modesty and various acts of voyeurism. 34 other similar charges were considered. You have been diagnosed with a voyeuristic disorder.
Deputy Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran requested 58 months in prison and 13 strokes of the baton, taking into account “the large number of crimes, the disgusting and disgusting abuse of the position of the accused” and “how the accused compromised physical integrity and dignity” . of patients in your care.
Nurses are at the heart of our healthcare system, he said, but the defendant instead perpetrated “egregious abuses in a public hospital,” with his “despicable conduct” striking “the very spirit of nursing” and threatening to ” taint and seriously spoil the efforts of healthcare workers everywhere. ”
Defense attorneys Mato Kotwani and Ashwin Ganapathy instead asked for no more than 57 months and a week in jail, and no more than nine strokes of the baton.
Kotwani said his client’s decision to plead guilty was due to his remorse.
“He is truly sorry for the pain and pain that he has caused the victims and their families,” he said.
He added that his client has made “unreserved confessions to the police, fully assisting in their investigations.”
District Judge Luke Tan said he broadly agreed with the prosecution, adding that the defendant “has really done a disservice” to the nursing profession.
CNA has contacted IMH for more information.
