A nurse who filmed up the gowns of unconscious female patients and secretly recorded hospital staff using the bathroom has been jailed for 12 years.
Paul Grayson, a charge nurse at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, pleaded guilty to 14 charges of voyeurism, three sexual assaults, one charge of upskirting, and one of installing recording equipment for the purposes of sexual gratification.
He also admitted one count of taking indecent images of a child, and three of possessing indecent images of children.
Sentencing Grayson at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said the 51-year-old had “betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in” him.
“You have already been stripped of your status as a nurse by your professional body. So you should be,” Judge Richardson said. “You have brought shame on an honourable professional by your egregious criminal conduct.”
Grayson, of Woodstock Road, Sheffield, was told he must serve an extended licence period of four years when he is eventually released.
The judge described how four patients were targeted as they recovered from surgery at Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital – one of whom has never been identified from the footage.
Grayson also filmed five nurses using a toilet at the hospital, and two other young women who were not connected to the hospital using hidden cameras, the court heard.
Earlier this week, the court heard one victim, who was secretly filmed in the shower by Grayson over a number of years, face 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 that one victim was unconscious after an eye operation when Grayson filmed below 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”, and that she has since been due to have an operation at another hospital but “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”.
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.
The court heard how 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.
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.
“Whilst this was an incredibly rare occurrence, we never want it to happen to anyone else and as a result we are examining all of the information now available to determine if there are any further measures we can take to limit the opportunity for someone to do this in the future.”
South Yorkshire Police said that, of the 23 offences Grayson admitted to, 14 occurred at his workplace.
Officer in the case Detective Sergeant Sarah Dolby said that “in interview, Grayson admitted having an insatiable addiction to voyeurism and pornography”, adding: “I have no doubt that had he not been caught, his offending would have continued.”
Grayson’s victims had all “conducted themselves with outstanding courage and dignity in truly awful circumstances”, she said, adding: “While they will have to live with the mental scars forever, I do hope that today's result gives them some closure on these horrifying events.”
Additional reporting by PA
