A HEALTHCARE assistant who worked with highly vulnerable people has been found guilty of sexual misconduct against two female patients.
Vincent Charles Roberts kissed one of the women and kissed and intimately touched the other woman – as well as encouraging her to touch him – on seven separate occasions.
Following his conviction, the States police said that the 57-year-old ‘abused his position of trust’ for his ‘own gratification’.
And it can now be revealed that Roberts was taken on as a healthcare assistant after being barred from the finance industry for using tens of thousands of pounds of his clients’ money to cover his gambling debts.
During his trial this week, Jurats heard that the sexual offences were initially disclosed to a member of staff, who raised a safeguarding adult alert to the adult safeguarding team. Roberts was then arrested in January 2021.
Throughout the inquiry he refused to engage with investigators and later fled the Island, but was detained by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary in the Isle of Wight, and handed over to States police officers in Southampton in August last year.
Roberts denied charges of committing prohibited acts with someone with a mental disorder, but the three-day trial in the Royal Court heard from a nurse and her former manager who had both heard reports about a relationship between him and one of the women.
Giving evidence during his trial, Roberts admitted that he and the other woman had been attracted to each other but claimed they had not engaged in any sexual behaviour while she was being treated. However, the panel of Jurats found him unanimously guilty of the eight counts he faced.
Advocate Simon Crowder, prosecuting, said that the bulk of the messages between Roberts and the woman had been sent via social-media and messaging apps Tik Tok and Snapchat.
‘He used Tik Tok and Snapchat knowing that the messages would be deleted automatically,’ Advocate Crowder said.
He added: ‘This was a man who preyed upon vulnerable people, and befriended them before sexually assaulting them.
‘There were no eye-witnesses. There wouldn’t be. The offences took place when they were alone.’
Advocate Crowder said that the testimony of the first woman, who claimed Roberts had kissed her, could be trusted.
He told the court: ‘If her intention was to get him into trouble she would have made up a more lurid allegation.’
The second woman was said to have consented to the sexual contact, but the advocate said: ‘The question of consent is irrelevant. These acts were prohibited under any circumstances while she remained a patient.’
Following the trial, Detective Constable Carla Garnier said: ‘This was a long and complex investigation into how Roberts abused his position of trust with vulnerable people for his own gratification.
‘He tried to evade justice by leaving the Island, and I am thankful that he was apprehended, brought back to face the courts and found guilty of this.
‘We are committed to investigating and prosecuting all sexual offenders and want to assure victims that there are a number of agencies who are in a position to offer support and guidance through all stages of the criminal-justice process.
‘The Sexual Assault Referral Centre at Dewberry House provides expert independent and confidential support to victims of sexual abuse. The centre comprises a team of experts with a wealth of knowledge and experience in advising, supporting and treating anyone who has been raped or sexually assaulted. They can be reached on 888222.’
Roberts’s trial was presided over by Commissioner Sir John Saunders and Jurats Stephen Jones and Terry Ferbrache.
He was released on bail to reappear in court tomorrow, when a sentencing date will be fixed.
BACKGROUND
Vincent Roberts had been barred from working as a financial adviser two years before he became a healthcare assistant.
In 2018, he was alleged to have used thousands of pounds of investors’ money to pay off his gambling debts – and the Jersey Financial Services Commission ruled that he was ‘not fit and proper’ to work in any of the businesses it regulated.
Roberts had worked as a financial adviser from 2005 to 2017 and was said to have advised clients to ‘diversify their portfolios’ of investments and lend him the money, which he promised to pay back at interest rates of eight per cent, but failed to do so.
He was also said to have borrowed £9,500 from one client’s bank account, which he later repaid.
The JFSC said that Roberts had allowed his poor financial standing, caused by gambling debts, to impair his judgment.
Roberts had been working in a shop in Newport on the Isle of Wight when he was arrested for the current offences, in September last year.
