Nurse Andrew Hutchinson jailed for attacks on patients

A former nurse has been jailed for 18 years for raping and sexually assaulting unconscious women.

Andrew Hutchinson, from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, pleaded guilty to rape, sexual assault and voyeurism committed from 2011 to 2013.

The 29-year-old filmed himself raping two patients at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he worked.

He also attacked women who had passed out while he was on duty at a music festival, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Hutchinson targeted women who had lost consciousness through drinking too much and they were unaware they had been assaulted until contacted by Thames Valley Police.

The court heard the women he raped in the A&E department at the Oxford hospital had to view parts of Hutchinson's recordings in order to identify themselves.

One victim, an 18-year-old, was raped in October 2011 and a 35-year-old was raped in February 2012.

He also attacked two women in their 20s while volunteering as a medic at the Wilderness Festival in Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, in August 2013.

His was tending the women when he committed the crimes, one in a medical tent and the other in a nearby ambulance.

Officers initially arrested him for secretly filming girls as young as nine in changing rooms at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon in November 2013.

Following a search of his home, police found footage of sex attacks on his computer and mobile phone.

The court was told Hutchinson also had hundreds of other voyeuristic images, including "up skirt" pictures taken on the London Underground while he was volunteering at the 2012 Olympics.

Victims were also filmed at John Radcliffe Hospital and at a gym in Batley, West Yorkshire where he had previously worked.

At a hearing on 30 March, he also pleaded guilty to outraging public decency, making indecent images of children, theft of a hospital camera used for internal examinations and possession of the class B drug ketamine.

The victims of his crimes were aged between nine and 35, although many were unidentifiable due to the nature of the footage.

Catherine Stoddart, chief nurse at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "I am shocked and horrified by the way in which Andrew Hutchinson has betrayed the patients he was entrusted to care for and his colleagues, who also trusted him."

She said the hospital will be carrying out an internal review to see if Hutchinson could have been prevented from committing his crimes.

Hutchinson was suspended by the trust in November 2013 following allegations he stole medical equipment.

It also informed the Nursing and Midwifery Council and launched an internal investigation, which led to his dismissal.

Judge Ian Pringle QC described Hutchinson's crimes as "despicable".

He said: "When they were unconscious requiring your help and your assistance as their nurse, you raped them and you filmed it.

"It is impossible to conceive of a greater breach of trust in our society."

In a statement read out in court, one of the victims said: "I think that what he has done is much worse that doing it in the street because I had no idea what was happening, so I had no opportunity to fight back."

Senior investigating officer, Det Ch Insp Mark Johns of Thames Valley Police, said: "This has been a particularly complicated, unusual and sensitive case as the victims were not aware that offences took place because they were not conscious.

"I would like to thank the victims for the great courage and dignity they have shown during our investigation."

Police said all victims who can be identified have been contacted.

Anyone with concerns can contact police on 101, quoting Operation Bream.