AN emergency care assistant is accused of sexually assaulting a patient in an ambulance under the pretence it was a medical examination, a court has heard.

Marcus Gunn is on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with two counts of sexual assault which are alleged to have taken place on December 16, 2022 in West Oxfordshire.

The 58-year-old is accused of inappropriately touching a patient, who cannot be named for legal reasons, whilst she was being driven to the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

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A jury heard he had allegedly penetrated the woman as well as exposing her breasts until the patient pretended to pass out.

Gunn, of Station Road, Fenny Compton, has denied the offences – telling police all touching was consensual and part of a medical assessment.

During the opening of the trial on Monday (June 10), prosecuting barrister Jonathan Stone explained that the patient had become unwell at home and visited her GP surgery who, in turn, advised an ambulance be called.

The South Central Ambulance Service arrived with a paramedic and the defendant who was an emergency care assistant.

Mr Stone said: “That was a very junior role. What he was allowed to do, certainly without supervision, was very limited.”

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The paramedic triaged the patient while the defendant attached an ECG monitor which he was allegedly not asked to do – this forms part of the charge.

It was decided to transport the patient to hospital with the paramedic driving and the defendant monitoring the woman in the back.

Mr Stone said: “There then began a series of unnecessary, inappropriate medical tests which soon became blatant sexual assaults.”

Gunn is accused of exposing the woman’s breasts to use a stethoscope, pulling her pyjamas and bottoms down, pushing on her abdomen and genitals and penetrating her.

He is also accused of using ‘abhorrent language’ such as telling the patient: “I will have you back to work as a prostitute.”

The woman states she then pretended to pass out to get Gunn to stop touching her which ‘appeared to work’.

She later reported the incident and Gunn was arrested and interviewed the following January.

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He told officers that he could not have touched the patient between her legs because there was ‘no room’ for her legs to have opened on the stretcher.

Gunn said he carried out an abdomen assessment and had used a stethoscope consensually as she had complained of shortness of breath and pain. He added that these tests were all consensual.

The trial, which is expected to last three days, continues.