Jack Burrows, 35, a married father from Salford, has been jailed after giving a “vulnerable” patient his mobile number and twice had sex with her at a mental heath unit
A care worker has been jailed after having sex with a ‘vulnerable’ patient being treated at a mental health unit.
Jack Burrows, 35, a married father from Salford, gave the woman his mobile number and twice had sex with the patient – once in a yard and later on a grass verge – as well as sending her a picture of his genitals. He was employed as a ‘bank’ care worker by NHS Professionals and met the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, at a mental health unit in Greater Manchester.
“He was well aware that the patients he was looking after were vulnerable and suffering from mental health issues sufficient to require their treatment as in-patients,” prosecutor Philip Barnes told Manchester Crown Court.
The patient had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and met the defendant when he escorted her to another ward or when he worked ‘bank’ shifts at the hospital.
He gave the patient his mobile and ’embarked on a relationship’ with her, going on to have sex with her twice while escorting her away from her ward. The patient later confided in another member of staff, telling them she had been ‘doing something really bad’, Mr Barnes told the court.
The prosecutor said there was no suggestion the relationship was ‘non-consensual’. When pressed, she admitted she had been having sex with a member of staff and she named Burrows. The patient’s phone was examined and it revealed a string of messages between the pair.
Burrows encouraged the patient to view him as a ‘potential love interest’ and they discussed places where they might have sex. He offered to take more shifts so he could spend more time with her and admitted when he handed her his number he was ‘breaking every rule’.
He asked the woman to understand ‘what [he was] risking’. The defendant sent her ‘explicit messages about having sex with her’ while the messages spoke in past tense about ‘previous sexual encounters’, the prosecutor added, reported the Manchester Evening News.
“I know you are risking a lot for me,” the patient texted Burrows. The pair discussed ‘the risks of engaging in sexual activity whilst on the ward together’.
“Keep cool so we don’t get caught,” Burrows told the woman. He offered to sneak alcohol into the ward for her and once sent her a picture of his penis.
When the patient was interviewed by the police, she revealed that after she had gone outside the ward for a cigarette with him he took her to a yard nearby where they had sex. They had sex for a second time outside when he was escorting her back to the ward, she told officers.
Burrows was arrested and when police analysed his phone none of the messages the pair exchanged were present, with the ‘obvious inference’ the defendant had deleted them before he was quizzed, said the prosecutor.
In a prepared statement, Burrows denied any sexual contact with the woman. He insisted his phone had been used by someone else as a ‘drugs phone’ and that the messages had been sent by a third party.
In a victim personal statement read out in court, the woman said: “My association with Jack Burrows has affected so much of my life. Jack was in a position of trust and should have been one of the people to look after me and care for me. Instead, he took advantage of how vulnerable I was. It should have been a place of safety for me but it wasn’t.”
She said she now felt ‘anxious’ in medical settings and would ‘shake and panic’. The woman said she felt ‘angry’. The woman ‘was in fact the first to send explicit messages’ during the relationship while Burrows ‘never asked’ for them, Betsy Hindle, defending, told the court.
Ms Hindle said the defendant ‘did have feelings’ for the woman. She told the court: “The defendant has no doubt acted irresponsibly, foolishly and quite frankly extremely stupidly and nobody is aware of just how stupid he has been more than himself.”
Burrows, who has no previous convictions, had been ‘through challenging times’, the barrister said. He ‘blames himself’ for a fire which caused his family and three children to lose their home, Ms Hindle added.
Burrows was ‘remorseful and ashamed’ of his actions with the woman, the barrister told the told. The defendant had a cocaine habit and had lost his job as a care worker and subsequently he had also lost work at a warehouse.
Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the Recorder of Manchester, told the defendant: “It may very well be right you did not instigate any discussions, but the fact is you provided your mobile and you knew that was wrong and you knew why it was wrong because personal relationships in these circumstances are highly problematic when you are dealing with vulnerable individuals.”
Burrows, of Blodwell Street, Salford, was jailed for two years and three months after he admitted two offences of being a care worker who engaged in sexual activity with a person with a mental health disorder contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
He waved at family members sat in the public gallery as he was led away.
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