AN A&E nurse with an “addiction” to spying on women has admitted raping and sexually assaulting unconscious patients at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

Andrew Hutchinson yesterday pleaded guilty to 27 offences in a case a senior police officer described as “shocking” and unlike anything he had seen in his career.

It follows the jailing of 37-year-old nurse Oliver Balicao in 2010 for raping a 17-year-old girl at the same hospital and sexually assaulting another patient in her bed.

A senior manager at the hospital said since Hutchinson’s crimes their procedures have changed and unconscious patients are now treated in one area with open visibility, rather than in various locations in A&E.

Hutchinson’s crimes were discovered after he was arrested in November 2013 for secretly filming women getting changed at the White Horse Leisure Centre in Abingdon.

Officers searched his home and found photos and videos of him abusing women dating back to 2011 that he had taken himself.

Police have now used the images to identify and notify 10 female victims aged between 35 and 10 years old.

Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday that Hutchinson raped women patients aged 18 and 35 while they were unconscious at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

He also subjected a 21-year-old and a 24-year-old to sexual assaults in the medical tent at the Wilderness Festival in 2013, where he was volunteering.

And police have said there may be as many as 19 further victims of voyeurism who they have not been able to identify.

Hutchinson has now admitted two counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, one count of outraging public decency and 12 counts of voyeurism.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of making indecent images of children, stealing ketamine and a medical camera from the hospital where he worked, and possession of a Class B drug.

His barrister Claire Fraser yesterday told a judge in Oxford Crown Court that her client - who was a senior nurse and had worked at the John Radcliffe for six years - had a long-standing “addiction” to spying on women.

Judge Zoe Smith said the offences were committed over an “extensive period” and asked for the probation service to assess whether Hutchinson is dangerous and should receive an extended prison sentence.

Speaking after the hearing Detective Chief Inspector Mark Johns said he and his team were shocked when they discovered the “volume of recording” carried out by Hutchinson.

 

He also paid tribute to the “courage and dignity” of the women who had to learn from the police they had been his victims.

DCI Johns added: “This has been a complicated and unusual case as the victims were not aware that offences took place because they were not conscious.

Thames Valley Police sent specially trained officers to personally speak to all the victims, who showed great courage when informed with such distressing news.

“I have no doubt that Hutchinson would have continued to offend had he not been arrested.

“I would like to reassure members of the public in Oxfordshire that all the victims who can be identified from images have been contacted.”

Oxford University Hospitals Trust director of workforce Mark Power said Hutchinson was sacked following his arrest.

He said: “Our thoughts today are with the victims, whose trust was so betrayed in our hospital and elsewhere.

“We have been shocked and horrified by the behaviour of the individual, who so badly let down both the patients he was entrusted to care for and his fellow colleagues, and who totally failed in his professional duties and responsibilities as a nurse.”

The hospital refused to answer questions about how two of its employee were able to rape patients on its premises.

Hutchinson, of Garford near Abingdon, has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced on April 27.