PARAMEDIC Gordon Thompson raped one of his victims after calling at her home naked under his green ambulance crew overalls, a jury was told.

Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday that 35-year-old Thompson raped the first of his three victims on her sofa after turning up dressed in nothing but his zip-up uniform.

The jury heard that Thompson, of Arkell Avenue, Carterton, befriended three women in an Oxford hospital after taking them for treatment for drink or drugs overdoses.

He would get their telephone numbers and addresses so he could call after they had been discharged.

Thompson pleads not guilty to six counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault between October 1995 and January 1997.

Richard Benson QC, prosecuting, told the jury how Thompson called on his first victim three weeks after treating her.

He said: "He said she had given him the come-on in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Within moments, he began to remove his green uniform and stripped out of it completely naked."

The court heard that Thompson then put a condom on, before removing his victim's tracksuit bottoms and raping her. Afterwards, he left without speaking.

The court heard that in a police statement Thompson told officers he did not have many friends and warm to people who needed help.

But Mr Benson told the court: "He targeted them and preyed on them to satisfy his lust." He added that Thompson knew his victims would be reluctant to complain because of their low self-esteem.

Under cross-examination by Nicholas Browne QC, defending, the first woman admitted that she was raped on a previous occasion by two other men and had reported the attack immediately - a complete contrast to her behaviour following the incidents involving Thompson.

She and the second alleged victim both admitted that they suffered hallucinations because of their drink and drug problems but insisted they had not imagined the sex attacks.

The first woman told the court that on occasions she had imagined seeing "snakes, swords and men".

The second said she had imagined "spiders crawling across her bed."

She told the court the paramedic called at her home in March 1996, shortly after she left hospital.

She said he seemed "very caring", but shortly afterwards climbed into bed and raped her.

The women deny concocting the story.

The case continues.

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