���˿���

A healthcare assistant accused of sexually assaulting two female patients has described one of them as "in tears and emotional" at the time due to pain from a bowel condition.

Ieuan Crump, 26, from Gilfach, Caerphilly county, is accused of nine counts of sexual assault, including three allegations of sexual assault by penetration.

The offences are alleged to have occurred at Grange Hospital in Cwmbran, Torfaen, in August 2021.

Mr Crump denies all the charges.

A woman, admitted for a bowel condition in August 2021, later told police that Mr Crump had touched her intimately, explaining it was part of a bladder scan.

She also claimed he carried out a pregnancy test by touching her breasts and her vagina.

Defence barrister Andrew Davies asked Mr Crump "what use" this would be in discovering if a woman was pregnant.

"It would be no use," Mr Crump replied.

He said the woman was "in tears and emotional" on the ward because she was in great pain.

He also said he could not remember being told not to carry out a bladder scan alone, and "in an ideal world” the hospital would try to accommodate a chaperone, but that this was not the case.

On the same ward, in the same week, a woman recovering from an operation to remove her appendix later claimed Mr Crump sexually assaulted her by carrying out unnecessary internal examinations.

The patient complained she was unable to pass urine and Mr Crump remained present while a senior nurse attempted to insert a catheter.

Mr Crump told the court he had not asked the patient, whose identity is protected by law, if she wanted him present for the procedure but that she had asked if he could be.

He denied making a request to either the patient or the senior nurse to stay and watch.

Mr Crump said he was standing facing the patient who was lying in what he said was the "birthing position" as a senior nurse attempted the procedure.

Asked if he touched the patient intimately or told her she needed to be touched intimately, Mr Crump said he had not.

He denied touching either woman in appropriately at any time.

Mr Crump appeared close to tears as he said his university has withheld his adult nursing degree and he is unable to work as a healthcare assistant or volunteer with St John's Ambulance due to the allegations. He is currently working in a factory.

"I had ambitions to be a doctor, but I didn't get the grades,” he told the court.

The court heard he worked as a healthcare support worker whilst studying for his degree, firstly at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and then at the Grange Hospital in Cwmbran.

He said he was part of the hospital's bank system, picking up shifts that needed to be staffed and, during the early part of the Covid pandemic, he worked in a stroke unit.

Asked by Mr Davies how much autonomy he had in his role as a healthcare assistant he replied "very limited... you supported the nurse".

The trial continues.