By John Cassidy - Belfast Live - 21/11/2024 - [Charles Watson] - [IRELAND] A former nurse who twice indecently assaulted a male patient at a Belfast hospital was today (Thursday) spared an immediate custodial sentence.
Charles Watson, 89, of Carlston Avenue in Holywood, Co Down, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years. The pensioner had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on the victim which dated back over three decades ago.
Belfast Crown Court heard the victim attended the Royal Victoria Hospital in west Belfast for a medical procedure on December 3, 1993. It was the prosecution case that when the victim was in a treatment room, Watson told him to remove his trousers and underwear before indecently assaulting him for up to two minutes.
Weeks later, the victim returned to the treatment room for another medical procedure when Watson locked the door, telling his victim: “We will not be disturbed.”
Watson told the male, who had just turned 19-years-old, to remove his trousers before indecently assaulting him. It wasn’t until August 2023 that he went to police and Watson was subsequently interviewed by police and provided officers with a pre-prepared statement.
He accepted that he worked at the RVH for about 30 years but said he would “deny all allegations and I will give ‘no comment’ to all questions”. Prosecution barrister Mark O’Hara said the aggravating features of the case were that it was a breach of trust case as Watson was working as a nurse, he targeted a young male patient and he had previous conviction for similar type offending.
The court was told that in 2018, Watson received a two-year probation order at Belfast Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on a teenage male patient.
The offences happened on dates between 1984 and 1987 when Watson was working as a clinical nursing supervisor in the RVH’s Genito Urinary Medicines unit. The victim had contracted a sexually transmitted disease and during a testing procedure, he sexually assaulted the 16-year-old for about three minutes.
On a later occasion, the teenager was referred back to the same unit after contracting another sexually transmitted disease and was again indecently assaulted by Watson.
A prosecution barrister said at the time: “He knew what was being done to him was wrong, but it was not until 1998 that he told a close friend.”
The court heard that in September 2016, the victim got work doing repairs at a house in Holywood and realised that the owner of the house was the nurse who had sexually assaulted him two decades previously. The prosecutor said the victim “confronted” Watson about the sexual assaults and the defendant replied: “I agree.”
Defence barrister Sean Mullan said Watson had recently been examined by a consultant geriatrician who described in her report the defendant’s frailty and his cognitive impairment as a result of his age. The report added that prison would be difficult for the defendant and he is a high risk of falling from being in a strange environment and from climbing steps. The consultant also stated the defendant also suffered from depression and this could deteriorate in prison.
Judge Gordon Kerr KC said: “There is absolutely no doubt given the nature of the offending and the breach of trust in this case that the custodial threshold has been met in this case.”
However, the judge said he had decided that given the offending was of a “low level”, the fact Watson is now aged 89, has a limited lifestyle, increasing mental problems and increasing physical problems, it was appropriate to suspend the prison sentence in the case.
But Judge Kerr warned Watson that if committed any further offences in the next two years he would be brought back to court to serve out the 12 month sentence. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary:- Age should be no barrier to prison sentences especially when serious patterns of misbehaviour are evident. Victims' ages were not considered when the abuse took place. Can multiple indecent assaults be termed “low-level” offending?#AbuseOfPatients #PatientProtection #AppropriateJustice