Irish police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her 90s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease by a fellow hospital patient.
A middle-aged man was arrested after he was seen by another patient on the ward allegedly getting into the elderly woman’s hospital bed on Wednesday, December 18.
Hospital staff intervened and he was removed from the facility the next day, when he was arrested by gardai and taken into questioning.
According to the Irish Independent, the suspect said he was confused about the woman’s identity and said he got into her bed thinking she was a woman he knew.
The suspect was later released without charge, but a file on the incident is reportedly being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The alleged victim has not been able to give police a statement due to her mental condition.
A spokesperson for the RCSI Hospital group told MailOnline: ‘The hospital places great importance on the safety of patients, visitors and staff, and are fully cooperating with An Garda Síochána’s investigation. We are unable to comment further on an ongoing investigation.’
The horrific incident comes after it was revealed in 2023 that gardai had investigated 143 incidents of sexual assault in hospitals over a three-year period.
Irish police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her 90s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease by a fellow hospital patient. Pictured: Stock image of a woman with Alzheimer’s disease
A middle-aged man was arrested after he was seen by another patient on the ward allegedly getting into the elderly woman’s hospital bed on Wednesday, December 18
Separate data revealed that a total of 12 patients were reportedly sexually assaulted in Irish mental health facilities in 2022.
Meanwhile, a damning 2023 report revealed that dozens of rapes and sexual assaults take place in hospitals every week in the UK.
The official figures lay bare the horrific scale of abuse – with 6,500 attacks being reported in just three years.
They include gang rapes and assaults on children. The statistics were published today by the Women’s Rights Network whose founder Heather Binning said they were ‘just the tip of the iceberg’.
Back in May, an Italian woman took her life after being raped while lying on a stretcher in an emergency department.
The 22-year-old was awaiting treatment in the Vizzolo Predabissi hospital near Milan when she was sexually assaulted. She told nurses, who swiftly called the police, around 4am: ‘Help, I was raped’, according to Italian newspaper Corriere Della Serra.
The suspect, a 28-year-old warehouse worker, was arrested just hours later as he was sleeping on a stretcher in the ER.
The following morning the woman is said to have jumped from a window on the fourth floor of the hospital. Despite attempts by medics to save her life, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect denied the rape allegation and told a local court that the sexual encounter had been consensual.
He said that he ‘didn’t force anyone’ and that they chatted and shared a cigarette together before they started kissing.
He could not remember how he got to the hospital and told investigators he had drunk a lot of alcohol with some friends and had smoke a few joints, according to local reports.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
