A nurse who filmed up the gowns of unconscious female patients and recorded staff using the toilet 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 he must serve an extended licence period of four years when he is eventually released.
He admitted taking advantage of four female patients when they were under general anaesthetic after surgery at Royal Hallamshire hospital in Sheffield – 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 – pleaded guilty to filming five nurses using a toilet at the hospital, and that he videoed two other young women who were not connected to the hospital, using hidden cameras.
Sentencing Grayson on Tuesday, the 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 profession by your egregious criminal conduct.”
Earlier this week one victim, whom Grayson secretly filmed in the shower over a number of years, faced him directly in court as she gave evidence. 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, jurors were told.
The court heard that another woman was unconscious after an eye operation when Grayson filmed up 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”. She said she was since due to have an operation at another hospital but “can’t bring myself to go”.
One nurse who was filmed in the toilet at the hospital said she had been left “mortified, embarrassed and humiliated”, the court heard.
Grayson, from 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. Grayson started at the hospital in 1994 and rose to become a charge nurse, the equivalent of a sister.
Prof Chris Morley, the 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.”
