Judge demands end to mixed-sex wards after alcoholic patient gropes frail dementia sufferer

Alcoholic Dean Galley, 41, was admitted to the shared unit despite a string of previous sex convictions.

In the middle of the night he sneaked over to the bed of the 82-year-old, who suffers from severe dementia, and sexually abused her.

The case heaps pressure on the Government to deal with the scandal of mixed wards.

Judge Timothy Clayson warned the policy was exposing patients to "unacceptable risks".

Labour has been widely condemned for failing to get rid of mixed wards, despite repeated promises to do so.

Patients' groups describe them as undignified and humiliating and the Daily Mail has led a long-running campaign against them.

Earlier this week, however, the Government was forced to admit it had failed to deliver its promises when Health Minister Lord Darzai said it was "not practical" to have single sex wards without rebuilding every hospital.

Galley was jailed indefinitely yesterday after being found guilty of sexually assaulting the woman at Bolton Crown Court. Although he has 18 previous convictions, including five of indecent assault on a child, he will be eligible for parole in 18 months.

Judge Clayson said: "This case calls into question the wisdom of placing patients on mixed sex wards, especially when there is a risk they may exhibit disturbed behaviour towards other vulnerable patients.

"No reasonable person can be content with such arrangements. This case demonstrates that quite unacceptable risks may arise if management policies lead to circumstances like those we have been dealing with."

Galley and the woman were admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital in June and placed in a four-bed medical assessment unit. The pensioner has dementia and was thought to have been suffering from an infection, while Galley was a chronic alcoholic with liver disease and withdrawal symptoms.

Hospitals are not given information regarding the convictions of patients and nursing staff had no idea Galley, from Halliwell, near Bolton, posed a risk.

The court heard that in the early hours of June 4 healthcare assistant Michelle Jackson heard the 82-year-old female shouting: "Get off me, get off me, get off me!"

Miss Jackson saw Galley, who was naked, moving from her bedside back to his own. The curtain around her bed - which should have been left open - had been closed, while the curtain between their beds, which should have been closed, was in fact open.

As she went to get help, Galley, unprompted, cried out: "I've done nothing. I've not touched her, she's off her head, she's causing trouble."

Nursing staff found the elderly woman in a state of undress with her nightdress pulled up.

Before the assault the woman could sometimes recognise her daughter but since then she has had no idea who she is, the court was told.

The case confirms the findings of a report by the Mental Health Act Commission this week which warned mentally ill patients were at risk of sexual abuse because they are kept on mixed wards.

Last night the pensioner's daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, criticised the Government for allowing her mother to be put through such a "harrowing" experience.

"The Government is to blame entirely for mixed wards," she said. "The nursing staff did everything they could but we definitely want to see mixed wards gone."

Last year it emerged that one in six hospital trusts have failed to meet official guidelines on not having male and female patients sharing general wards.

Alarmingly, the Royal Bolton is among those that comply. It operates a mixed-sex policy only in "assessment units".

Last night the hospital, apologised to the woman's family and said that, although it was operating within Government guidelines, it had changed its practices to ensure patients were placed in single sex bays wherever possible.

Michael Summers, vicechairman of the Patients' Association, added: "This is an appalling example of what can occur if females are not provided with adequate protection in hospital."