A psychiatric nurse has denied fondling a woman patient in her hospital room and asking to have sex with her after her discharge home.
Carl Tinker was caring for the patient at a Devon hospital but befriended her and allegedly touched her after they held hands and kissed during a short shopping trip.
The woman told Exeter Crown Court she blamed herself for the sexual encounters and only realised what he had done was wrong when she undertook a university course years later.
Nursing assistant Tinker, aged 49, who now lives in Trinity Street, Huddersfield, denies three counts of sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder by a carer.
Mr Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said the offences took place after the woman attempted suicide and was admitted to hospital as a voluntary mental patient.
Mr Crabb said the charges relate to three incidents while she was a patient but there were two further encounters after she was discharged in which Tinker met her at home and in his car and there was further touching.
He said on the final occasion he had asked her to have sex with him but this had never happened and they had lost touch with each other.
She told family and friends at the time but only reported the case last year. Tinker was interviewed and denied any inappropriate touching.
Mr Crabb said:"We are concerned with an allegation that is mercifully quite rare. We are dealing with a situation in which a care worker took a sexual advantage of a psychiatric patient in his care."
The woman told the jury Tinker had been one of the nurses looking after her in hospital. They got on well but the first physical contact came when he accompanied her on a short visit to nearby shops.
She said he held her hand when they were out of sight of the hospital and kissed her, putting his tongue in her mouth.
She said the second incident happened as he was waking her and giving her morning medication and put a hand inside her pyjama top and touched one breast.
The former patient said the third incident at the hospital itself happened in the afternoon in her room where Tinker came in as she was brushing her hair.
She said:"He held the back of my head while he kissed me. I responded and kissed him back. He said he would have to stop doing this and could get into a lot of trouble. He said that a lot. He was very worried.
"Before I was discharged he gave me a CD and asked me to listen to a song called Because of You. I saw him again at home and there were lots of telephone calls.
"The first time me visited me at home he wore an ID badge because he was worried about being seen. He said it would look official if he was recognised."
She said he touched her sexually on that visit and grinded himself against her but they did not have full sex. On his next visit they went in his car to a beauty spot where she alleges he told her he wanted sex.
She said: "We talked in the car and he said it was doing his head in and it could not go on but he really wanted to f*** me. He had his left hand on the top of my leg, on my inside thigh.
"He drove me back to my house and there was further contact on the phone but I never met him again.
"I did not report it at the time because I felt I had encouraged it. I felt dirty and I was going through a really hard time in my life and I did not want to go through any more."
The trial continues
