Heart patient groped nurse at Whittington Hospital

A Hampstead man who groped a nurse in the Whittington Hospital has walked free from court with a community order.

Shahid Miah confessed to sliding his hand up the hospital worker’s leg to touch her crotch area and also pretending to cup her buttocks as he was undergoing a heart examination at the hospital in Highgate, Highbury Corner Magistrates Court heard on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Daniel Kavanagh said: “Mr Miah presented on that day to the Whittington Hospital to the cardiac investigations unit.

“One of the nurses was dealing with him and while she was carrying out the ECG (to monitor the heart) scan he cupped his arm around the bottom area while he lay on the examination table, without actually touching her.”

Mr Kavanagh added: “As she was completing the ECG he put his right arm between her legs so that his hand touched her crotch area.

“The nurse was wearing trousers at the time. He touched her only momentarily.”

The hospital staff worker fled the private room and told a colleague of her ordeal on May 2 last year.

Miah, of Mansfield Road in South End Green, has regular scans to monitor the effect the drugs he is taking to treat his long-term schizophrenia, but these normally take place in the presence of another member of staff.

The 30-year-old had been an inpatient at the Highgate Mental Health Centre to treat his condition for a year in the lead up to the incident.

Presiding magistrates Mrs Shrewry said: “The offence is serious enough for us to make a community order.”

Miah, who pleaded guilty to the sexual assault at magistrates court on January 15, was given a six-month community order and ordered to pay £50 in compensation to the nurse.

The court heard how Mr Miah, who lives in a hostel, had not committed any similar sexual offences.

A defence solicitor, who refused to give her name, said: “He has told me he feels very bad about what happened and he is very remorseful.”