Accused Carer Claims Patient Groped Him

A Sheffield care worker accused of sexually assaulting an elderly dementia patient told a jury he had not touched the woman, saying: “If somebody touched my mother or mother-in-law like that I would be very annoyed.”

Brian Huggins, aged 63, is accused of massaging the 81-year-old woman’s breasts as she lay in bed, while he stood there with his trousers around his ankles.

But giving evidence at his trial at Sheffield Crown Court he said the story was “fabricated and malicious” – made up by colleague Minnie Thomas because he had called her friend a “lazy bitch” in an argument.

Telling the jury his version of events that night in March, Huggins, of Trenton Rise, Woodhouse, said he was returning a wheelchair to her room after cleaning it when the incident happened.

He said: “On the way back in I think I caught the chair or something and it disturbed her.

“She said is that you Brian? I said yes and went over to the bed and asked her if she was alright. She looked at me and smiled and laughed and then grabbed me on my testicles. I told her not to be so silly and to get off.

“I saw Minnie come in and she asked what was going on – I told her she had grabbed me but she looked at me and said ‘shame on you’. She kept saying that all night.”

Huggins, who had worked at the home for four years at the time of the incident, claims he was then allowed to continue working as normal that night – although the other two nurses on duty said he was supervised at all times.

He was suspended the next day following a meeting with his manager.

In cross-examination, Kath Goddard put it to him that there was little bad feeling left over from the argument with Minnie’s friend – a disagreement which had happened before Christmas – and questioned why she would make up the story.

But Huggins disagreed, and added: “I should not have called her a lazy bitch. If I am guilty of one thing, it is opening my big mouth.”

The trial continues.