A former Harrogate district carer once hailed a “health-care hero” has been jailed for over six years for sexually abusing a mentally disordered woman.
Carl McQuilliam-Jenkins, 49, groomed and sexually assaulted the woman at a care home in the Harrogate district over a seven-month period, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Catherine Silverton said the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had reluctantly consented to sex but did not have the mental capacity to do so.
McQuilliam-Jenkins, a father-of-two who won a ‘Local Health Care Hero’ award in 2016 in a separate part of the country, had sex with her on several occasions and told her to make it their secret.
Ms Silverton said the victim had a personality disorder which meant she was “easily led”, over-eager to please people and easy prey. Her condition was so acute that she found it difficult to make decisions for herself, forcing her family to place her in residential care.
McQuilliam-Jenkins, who was an agency worker, had duties which included working at the named care home four or five times a week.
He was “aware of (the victim’s) vulnerabilities”, having raised concerns with his work supervisor in April 2019 about “internet contact” she had had with a male resident of the home.
Exploited her mental disorder
McQuilliam-Jenkins warned staff she was vulnerable – but then began exploiting her mental disorder to sexually abuse her.
In January 2020, the victim told staff she had had sex with McQuilliam-Jenkins. Miss Silverton said:
“She said she had a sexual relationship with the defendant.”
Before the abuse began, the victim told McQuilliam-Jenkins that she liked him and asked for his telephone number. Miss Silverton added:
“He gave it to her but said it would have to be a secret, otherwise he would lose his job. She said they exchanged ‘sex texts and dirty messages’ and communicated via Facebook.”
McQuilliam-Jenkins sent her pictures of an intimate part of his body and a video in which he performed a lewd act. She in turn sent him photos of intimate parts of her body.
The victim said that McQuilliam-Jenkins “wanted to do sex and I said yes”. Miss SIlverton said:
“She said at first she liked him, but she said it was ‘getting too much with the sex things and stuff’. She said she didn’t want the sex to happen but she consented because she wanted to make him happy.
“She said she went along with it because he wanted it to happen. She said it was always him who instigated it.”
Arrested after a complaint
The victim, who also suffers from anxiety, said McQuilliam-Jenkins never used contraception and “continued to tell her to keep their sex a secret to prevent him losing his job”.
The victim, who needed 24-hour care, had to have treatment at a clinic after suffering a genital condition due to having unprotected sex with her abuser.
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McQuilliam-Jenkins, from Durham, was ultimately arrested after a complaint was made to police and was initially charged with six counts of sexual activity with a mentally disordered female while working as a care worker. The charges alleged that he knew or ought to have known that the woman had a mental disorder.
He initially denied all allegations but ultimately admitted three of the six charges. The offences occurred between July 2019 and January 2020. He appeared for sentence today
In a statement read out in court, the victim said she had felt “anxious and upset” and thought it was “okay to be with (McQuilliam-Jenkins) because he told her it would be okay”.
She had since not been sleeping and was worried that “people would call her a liar”.
McQuilliam’s wife had left him since his offences came to light, adding his offending had had a big impact on her family.
Care worker for 15 years
Syam Soni, mitigating, said McQuilliam-Jenkins realised his actions were “patently inappropriate”.
He said McQuilliam-Jenkins was himself suffering from mental health problems at the time due to work pressures and being the sole breadwinner for his family..
McQuilliam-Jenkins, of Howarth Terrace, Haswell, had worked in the care industry for 15 years with a “hitherto-unblemished record”.
Judge Simon Hickey said the victim was “clearly vulnerable and this was known by (McQuilliam-Jenkins)”. He told the defendant:
“You were aware of her vulnerability. She simply consented (to sex) to make you happy.”
Jailing McQuilliam-Jenkins for six years and four months, the judge told him he would have to serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.
McQuilliam-Jenkins was also placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life and made subject to a sexual-harm prevention order for an indefinite period. He was barred for life from working with vulnerable adults.
The prosecution said they accepted McQuilliam-Jenkins’s denials to the other charges on a “pragmatic basis” and would be offering no further evidence on those allegations.
