A nurse who fondled a colleague as they worked in a busy hospital ward has narrowly avoided jail. The female victim told a court she "froze" when Andrew Cassels "massaged" her buttock while she wrote patient notes.
Cassels, 36, of Bearsden, near Glasgow, was found guilty of sexual assault after trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court. Sheriff Michael Higgins said the incident had been “deeply distressing” for the victim and had a “detrimental “ impact on her.
But he noted that Cassels had no previous convictions and told him: “I’m satisfied that a community payback order is the most appropriate way of dealing with the matter.”The incident happened at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, on November 12, 2019.
The married victim, now aged 47, said she was about to have a break and Cassels was taking over from her when he committed the assault.She told the court: "I was writing up my patient notes before the handover."He came up behind me and I felt his hand on my buttock.