Jail for nurse who filmed sex attack

A nurse who bragged about filming himself sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in her hospital bed was jailed today for two years.

Jonathan Haldane, 39, used a mobile phone to record himself touching the patient's breasts as she lay behind screens in the Leicester Royal Infirmary's acute medical unit in March last year following a drugs overdose.

He uploaded the footage, two 35-second clips, onto his computer and then boasted about the sex attack while talking to a friend on-line.

Haldane was arrested after he emailed the friend the clip from his mobile.

Sentencing him at Leicester Crown Court today, Recorder Tim Spencer QC said: "Your victim placed herself in your trust and in the trust of the health service and her trust has been grossly betrayed."

Haldane's victim, Tara Jepson, 31, waived her legal right to anonymity to comment after the sentence hearing today.

Speaking outside court, she said: "It's just a case of moving on now and piecing my life back together. I want him to know he hasn't destroyed me.

"I have got absolutely no feelings for him whatsoever. I think he's pathetic. He doesn't deserve any thoughts and feelings from me."

Ms Jepson was completely unaware of the sex attack until police called at her home to tell her they were investigating.

The mother-of-four from Leicester added: "I was expecting the sentence to be double but he doesn't look like the kind of man who will take prison lightly."

Haldane, formerly of St James Road, Highfields, Leicester, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to sexually assaulting her.

He also admitted intimidating a witness - the female friend he showed the footage to - on 23 February this year.

The defendant apologised to his victim, who was sitting in the public gallery, through his barrister today before he was handed an 18-month sentence for the assault and a six-month term for the second count, to run consecutively.

After the sentence hearing, Detective Inspector Andy Allden, of Leicestershire Police, said: "Jonathan Haldane has not only let himself down but also an enormous amount of colleagues in the nursing profession, the vast majority of whom do an absolutely fantastic job."

Haldane, who qualified as a nurse in February 2006, was dismissed from his job in November last year. He has since moved to Prestatyn, North Wales.

After today's hearing, University Hospitals of Leicester Chief Nurse Suzanne Hinchliffe said: "We worked closely with the police on this investigation and we are pleased with the outcome.

"We are shocked and disgusted that this has happened in a hospital and that it was perpetrated by someone who was supposed to care for the people who need our help the most.

"Haldane's actions are inexcusable at every level, but most of all because he was a nurse and in a position of trust.

"We want to again express our deep regret to the victim for what she has been put through and we would like to make the point that this man is not at all representative of the amazing and dedicated nurses and medical staff who work in Leicester and across the wider NHS."