YORK HOSPITAL WORKER JAILED FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT ON PATIENT

A health professional has been jailed for sexually assaulting a patient at York Hospital.

Adewale Kudabo, 47, assaulted the woman when she was “particularly vulnerable” owing to a serious health condition which made her effectively immobile, York Crown Court heard.

Kudabo, a married family man, kissed the patient on the lips and against her will while she was lying in bed and barely able to move due to her condition.

Prosecutor Henry Fernandez said that on the first occasion, Kudabo leant down and kissed the woman after giving her a bed bath. She tried to pull her head away to avoid the assault but to no avail.

On the second occasion a few days later, the victim refused Kudabo’s offer of a bed bath, whereupon he leant down and kissed her again as she was laid helpless on her hospital bed.

The incidents occurred at a time when she was in “a lot of pain” due to her health condition which made it near impossible for her to move.

Kudabo, who lives in the South Bank area of York near Bishopthorpe Road, appeared for sentence today (10 June) after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault.

Mr Fernandez said the incidents occurred just nine months after Kudabo arrived in the UK from Nigeria. He was working as a health assistant at the hospital at the time of the offences.

The victim ultimately reported the matters to police and Kudabo was brought in for questioning. He told officers that what he had done was “in keeping with his job” and said he had kissed the woman on the forehead, not the lips.

He claimed he had acted out of “sympathy” for the woman and the condition she was in.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, the victim said she had since been “living with feelings of helplessness, fear and loss of trust” in people. She had suffered anxiety attacks, depression and flashbacks to the incidents.

“The trauma continues to impact her on a daily basis,” said Mr Fernandez.

Defence barrister Jerry Sodipe said that Kudabo accepted that his actions were “inappropriate”.

He said the former healthcare assistant had a previously unblemished record.

Judge Alex Menary said that Kudabo had “abused the trust” placed in him as a healthcare professional.

He said although Kudabo still claimed that they were kisses to the forehead in “sympathy” for the woman, “I’m satisfied it was a kiss on the lips”.

He said the assaults had had a profound effect on the victim and her personal life.

“She was particularly vulnerable, she was effectively immobile in her hospital bed and almost entirely dependent on others for her care,” added the judge.

“She placed her trust in you as a carer to look after her and you abused that trust.

“It seems to me that… appropriate punishment can only be marked with immediate custody to mark the seriousness of these offences and the seriousness of what you did to someone in your care.”

Kudabo was handed a 12-month jail sentence but was told he would serve only half of that before being released on prison licence. He was ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for ten years.