According to reports from Indian media on December 11, a British-Indian nurse was recently sentenced to prison for raping a vulnerable person and sexually assaulting two other female staff members at a nursing home in Scotland seven years ago. The 47-year-old Paul, who is originally from India, was handed a seven-year and nine-month prison term after pleading guilty to charges of rape and multiple counts of sexual assault committed while he was working as a manager at the nursing home.
Paul was first accused of these crimes in 2018, but he fled to India on the pretext of his father’s illness ahead of his trial in December 2019. He was arrested in February this year and extradited back to the UK from Delhi in October after entering a guilty plea. As reported by the Press Trust of India, he stood trial at the UK High Court on Monday.
When delivering the sentence, the judge condemned Paul’s actions and rejected his attempts to mitigate his responsibility. The British judge stated: “The nature of your offences is serious and predatory. Although you have pleaded guilty, the version of events you have put forward is vastly different from the facts you have admitted to.”
Court documents revealed that Paul raped a 26-year-old colleague in 2018 after threatening her. In April of that year, the woman had returned to work following a sick leave and confided that she had to come back due to debt issues. A week later, Paul warned her that she might lose her job because of her absence and coerced her into having sex. Prosecutors also brought forward two other cases involving young care assistants. In one instance, Paul grabbed a 19-year-old girl’s buttocks and attempted to kiss her; in another, he approached a 21-year-old colleague, made inappropriate physical contact with her, and said: “I know you want it. I can tell from your body language.”
While Paul’s sentence was slightly reduced from eight years due to his guilty plea, he will be subject to two years of supervision after his release from prison. He has been placed on the sex offenders register for life and is prohibited from approaching any of the victims.
