'Sick and evil' male nurse jailed after filming up gowns of unconscious female patients

10 May 2022, 18:02

A nurse who filmed up the gowns of unconscious female patients has been jailed for 12 years by a judge who said he had "brought shame" on the profession.

Paul Grayson, 51, also recorded staff using the toilet at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

Sentencing him on Tuesday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: "You have betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in you.

"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."

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Sheffield Crown Court heard how Grayson, who had more than 25 years' experience in nursing, targeted four patients as they recovered from surgery.

He also filmed five nurses using a toilet at the hospital, and videoed two other young women who were not connected to the hospital using hidden cameras.

Earlier this week, one victim, who was secretly filmed in the shower by Grayson over a number of years, faced him directly in court as she told him his "sick and disgusting perversions" and "evil actions" were crimes that "have torn me into pieces".

It was this woman's suspicions that led her to conduct her own investigation which uncovered a stash of computer files, "curated" into folders.

The court heard one victim was unconscious after an eye operation when Grayson filmed her up her gown, and could be seen moving her underwear.

The woman told police she had "put her trust in staff at the hospital to keep her safe".

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She said she has since been due to have an operation at another hospital but she "can't bring myself to go".

Prosecutors said one nurse who was filmed in the toilet at the hospital 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 hospital-based offences took place between 2017 and 2020 but there was evidence the defendant had been filming women as long ago as 2012, the court heard.

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."