Sheffield nurse who filmed unconscious patients jailed for 12 years
A judge said Paul Grayson had "brought shame on an honourable profession".
Last updated 10th May 2022
A Sheffield nurse who filmed indecent footage of unconscious female patients as they recovered from surgery at the Royal Hallamshire has been jailed for 12 years by a judge who said he had "brought shame on an honourable profession".
Paul Grayson, 51, was also told by the judge 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.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Grayson - a charge nurse with more than 25 years' experience - also pleaded guilty to filming five nurses using a toilet at the hospital, and also videoed two other young women who were not connected to the hospital using hidden cameras.
Sentencing Grayson on Tuesday, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: "You have betrayed every ounce of trust reposed in you.
"You have already been stripped of your status as a nurse by your professional body. So you should be.
"You have brought shame on an honourable professional by your egregious criminal conduct."
Prosecutors said one nurse who was filmed in the toilet at the hospital said she had been left "mortified, embarrassed and humiliated".
Grayson, of Woodstock Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to 14 charges of voyeurism, three sexual assaults, one charge of upskirting, one of taking indecent images of a child, one of installing recording equipment for the purposes of sexual gratification and three of possessing indecent images of children.
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."