RECRUITMENT processes in Health are to be reviewed after a care assistant abused his position to commit sexual acts with two vulnerable mental-health patients.
Vincent Roberts – a disgraced ex-financial adviser with a history of dishonesty – befriended the pair before sexually assaulting them when they were alone.
He denied the offences but was this week convicted by the Royal Court of eight counts of committing sexual offences while in a relationship of care, relating to prohibited acts with someone suffering from a mental disorder.
The court heard that Roberts kissed one of the women and kissed and engaged in intimate behaviour with the other on seven separate occasions.
Following the guilty verdicts, the JEP revealed that the 57-year-old had previously abused a position of trust during his former life in the finance industry, when he spent tens of thousands of pounds of clients’ money to pay off gambling debts.
He was barred from working in regulated businesses by the Jersey Financial Services Commission in 2018 – about two years before he committed the sexual misconduct.
The JFSC found that he was ‘not fit and proper’ to work in any businesses it regulated.
The JEP asked whether Health and Community Services were aware of the regulator’s warning about Roberts before he was recruited, and whether JFSC warnings form part of routine background checks or will do in future.
In a statement, Andy Weir, director of mental health and adult social care, said: ‘The recruitment and pre-employment checks process is subject to an internal review. It is important that when these situations arise we seek to understand if our safeguarding checks are adequate and are being properly applied.
‘A number of pre-employment checks are already carried out by Health and Community Services before someone is appointed to a role. These checks include verifying people’s backgrounds and any previous or known concerns through the Disclosure and Barring Service, and also through references.’
He added: ‘We would always in circumstances such as this review our processes to understand whether there is any learning, and I have already started that process.
‘Mr Roberts was suspended as soon as the allegations came to light and was dismissed before the case came to court.’
Stephen McCrimmon, co-executive director of the charity Focus on Mental Health, said that Roberts ‘slipped through the net’ despite the government having a ‘quite drawn out recruitment process’.
