A patient groped an ambulance worker who came to his aid after he drunkenly fell over and hit his head on a wall. Yonas Mulugeta, 41, was “off his face on alcohol” when he carried out the “disgraceful” sexual assault, a court heard.
He had been sleeping on a stretcher, having been taken to hospital, before he carried out the attack. Emergency services were called in July last year to reports that he was “behaving aggressively” after falling and banging his head on a brick wall.
Two ambulance staff went to the scene and found him “intoxicated and agitated”. Emily Land, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court he was placed into a wheelchair and taken into an ambulance, where he “acted obstructively and was lashing out”.
She said he “calmed down on the journey” to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where he fell asleep on a stretcher. His arm was seen dangling off the makeshift bed and an emergency medical technician tried to move it back into place, the Liverpool Echo reports. But he woke up and grabbed her by the buttocks then “squeezed while pulling her body into him and the stretcher”.
Mulugeta was also said to have tried to spit at his victim, although the saliva ultimately landed on himself. He was then restrained by a police officer who was present at the hospital.
Ms Land said of a statement prepared by the victim: “It has changed her behaviour and made her more cautious. She also finds that, when she is given work in the Liverpool area, it increases her anxiety. She does not appreciate what happened while she was trying to help this gentleman.”
Mulugeta later told detectives he had “not taken his medication for two days and had been drinking heavily”. He said he had no recollection of the events. But he claimed he was “a married man, so wouldn’t have derived any sexual gratification from it”.
Matthew O’Neill, defending, told the court: “Clearly, the demon drink has played a massive part. The requirements are there to ensure the defendant will not be before these courts again with the help that he clearly needs.
“He has not drank alcohol for five months. If the court were to place him on an order to ensure that progress continues, that would be an appropriate sentence.”
Mulugeta, of Fairfield, Liverpool, who was assisted by an interpreter during the hearing, admitted one count of sexual assault. He was handed a 12-month community order with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 30 days and a 60-day alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement.
Judge Garrett Byrne said: “You, to put it bluntly, were off your face on alcohol. You fell over and hit your head. She was there to help you. Your behaviour thereafter was disgraceful.
“She is perfectly entitled to expect to be able to carry out her job without being groped by you. It is a serious matter. However, as you have no previous convictions in this country and you are assessed as posing a risk which can be managed in the community, I am going to pass a community order.
“You will be fitted with an electronic tag that can detect alcohol in your system. If you drink alcohol, that will be detected and you will be in breach of the order and brought back to court in front of me. Then I will make the sentence much more onerous than it is now.”
Mulugeta was also told to pay £250 in compensation to his victim, a sum to be deducted from his benefits. He will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for the next five years.