Victoria

Psychiatric nurse charged with raping two patients at Bundoora hospital

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Every night, before she went to bed at Northpark Private Hospital, Kate* was given a heavy sedative.

In May last year, she was woken by a psychiatric nurse, who had become a friend.

He was on her bed. Soon after, he would allegedly rape her for the first time.

Five months later, another patient, Jess*, told Kate she wanted to change rooms at the Bundoora hospital because of an incident that had allegedly occurred in her shared room the night before.

Jess' roommate — a female patient — and the psychiatric nurse had allegedly entered the small share room, which had a bed on either side of a partition, and gone to the roommate's bed.

Jess said she could hear the nurse talking to the patient. Then she heard intense kissing.

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When Jess told Kate this, she just looked at her.

"I said 'what?'," Jess told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, "and she said 'he's done it to me too'."

The 48-year-old psychiatric nurse was later charged with seven counts of rape and six of indecent assault for offences against two patients.

On Friday, he was committed to stand trial, and faced the County Court on Monday.

Jess reported the nurse to Northpark nurse unit manager Noreen McConville​ on August 14 last year.

The nurse, a married father-of-two who cannot be named, was stood down.

The man's lawyer, Josh Taaffe, indicated last week that he would argue his client had consensual sex with the women.

Text messages, which were similar to those  that people in a relationship shared, supported this, he said.

It is alleged the nurse groomed the women by offering them support outside of his normal duties. He eventually started hugging them when he left their rooms, police said.

He then started kissing his victims, it is alleged, before the contact became more sexual.

Both women were allegedly raped inside the hospital. One victim was also allegedly raped at his house, and another at a public toilet block.

He is alleged to have also raped Kate when she had passed out from drinking.

It is alleged the other victim was raped when she had an arm in plaster.

The offences allegedly occurred between March and August last year.

The women did not know each other.

The first offence allegedly occurred in March last year, when, after he developed a friendship with one of the woman, he sat with her and kissed her for about 40 seconds.

She was discharged soon after, but the nurse regularly called her and told her he loved her, police said.

Later that month, when she was back at the hospital, police allege he took her hand and put it on his crotch, saying "you see what you do to me?".

In March last year, while on one hour of unsupervised leave from the hospital, the woman was allegedly confronted by the nurse at the Bundoora Square shopping centre.

He drove her to a park, where he allegedly indecently assaulted her on a park bench, before taking her to a disabled toilet and raping her, the incident ending when he realised she had to return from her leave. She had felt unable to fight him off because of her arm injury.

Kate was admitted to the hospital in April last year.

She was in regular contact with the nurse, as she felt he was "a stable person in her life", police said.

In May, the nurse allegedly kissed her on the mouth. A little more than a week later she was allegedly raped.

"[The victim] felt too frightened for her safety to report the incidents," the police summary reads.

"She was concerned for her safety because the accused provides her with medications each day, and has access to her personal file so knows everything about her."

Ms McConville spoke to this alleged victim after Jess reported the nurse last August.

Ms McConville said during the nurse's committal hearing on Friday that the alleged victim initially told her she had become friends with the man, which had developed into them kissing.

She told her later that she had sex with the nurse because she felt she had to.

"She said she had developed a friendship with [the nurse], he had problems of his own, she had been a shoulder to cry on, and it had gone from there," Ms McConville said.

Ms McConville said the nurse, who had worked at the hospital since 2008, had been on a performance management plan because of his competence at work, but that this was not related to inappropriate behaviour.

Under cross-examination from Mr Taaffe, she admitted she had described the nurse as "a nervous, clumsy, employee who was never calm or in control".

But she said she never considered his behaviour was linked to a mental health issue.

The man will appear in court again on July 28 next year, ahead of a trial in September.

* Not their real names.

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