Former IMH nurse jailed for abusing patients and colleagues



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Instead of caring for her patients, a former nurse at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) abused them and filmed them showering.

Some of the patients were seriously mentally ill and suicidal.

Yesterday, he was jailed for 57 months and a week and received 10 strokes of the baton after he pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting a woman’s modesty and two counts of abuse and voyeurism each. 34 other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The 36-year-old defendant also took videos of his colleagues changing and videos under the skirts of a pregnant woman and another woman at an MRT station.

The married man with four children cannot be identified to protect the identity of his victims.

Due to his seniority at the IMH, he was assigned to care for patients in the High Dependency Psychiatric Care Unit (HDPCU), a highly specialized ward for patients with serious mental illness, active or suicidal disorders.

In September of last year, he passed through the HDPCU activity room and saw one of the patients alone in a hospital bed. I was restricted to the bed and half naked.

She called him and he realized from her slurred speech that she was on medication.

Instead of calling a nurse to check on her, he recorded a video of himself abusing her, Deputy Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran said.

In November last year, he was tasked with monitoring the blood pressure of a patient who had been sedated due to the assault.

Realizing that the patient’s bed was partially protected by a curtain, he recorded a video of himself pulling on his blanket to expose his genital area. She was asleep throughout the incident.

Thirteen videos of nine patients showering were also extracted from his mobile phone.

He also recorded an upskirt video of a doctor that he accompanied during his rounds.

He targeted his fellow nurses by filming them changing as he stood in a chair and placed his phone on the door.

PREGNANT WOMAN

A 26-year-old pregnant woman also fell prey to him after she responded to his ad for a maternity photoshoot, which he told her was for an IMH performance.

They met at the Chinese Garden in Jurong last December, when he took five upskirt videos after telling her to look away from him.

He was arrested at IMH in March this year when a woman made a police report after seeing him taking video of her at an MRT station.

His two mobile phones were confiscated and sent for a forensic examination.

A total of 26 upskirt videos of IMH staff and members of the public were found on their phones, as well as five videos of IMH staff changing on the premises. There were also three videos of him sexually abusing IMH patients.

You have been diagnosed with a voyeuristic disorder.

DPP Thiagesh said the defendant’s conduct was despicable and attacks “the very spirit of the infirmary.”

He also said the man’s actions threatened to tarnish and spoil the efforts of healthcare workers.

The defendants’ attorneys, Mr. Mato Kotwani and Mr. Ashwin Ganapathy, said the former nurse regrets her actions and has made open confessions to the police.



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