In grim news, a paramedic posed as a gay man to encourage a series of women to gain his trust and then raped or sexually assaulted them, a court has heard.
Christopher Bridger, 25, is accused of attacking two fellow students when he was training to be a medic at St George’s University Hospital in London, and then three colleagues while working for the South East Coast Ambulance Service.
Caroline Carberry, for the prosecution, said: ‘Christopher Bridger is a sexual predator and confidence trickster who used the cover or ruse of pretending to be gay in order to befriend and become close to, and then take advantage of young female friends and colleagues when they were at their most vulnerable.’
He allegedly attacked one woman during Fresher’s Week in 2008, when he walked her back to their halls after she’d got ‘very drunk’ and upset. Cuddling and then kissing her, despite her protestations, he then raped her.
‘Finally, he did stop and she said that he started crying and she felt she had to comfort him even though she knew he was in the wrong. He told her he said he wanted to like girls and was having problems with his family,’ Mrs Carberry said.
He allegedly attacked the woman again, after she had got drunk with friends at her house and texted him saying he was missing a good night. He turned up later and assaulted her in bed, the court heard. She was left suffering with panic attacks and left the university hospital soon after.
Another woman was a fellow ambulance worker and a lesbian. He assaulted her while her partner was in the same bed, Guildford Crown Court heard. The couple had had a row while the first woman was drunk and her partner had recorded her on her phone to show her how drunk she was the next day.
‘[The partner] went into the bathroom and the phone was still recording and it picks up what Bridger said to [the alleged victim],’ said Mrs Carberry, reports The Daily Mail. ‘She was so drunk or asleep that she is almost incapable of speech. The defendant can be heard moving her along the bed and telling her that he loves her more than she will ever know. When she slurs to him that she is asleep, he can be heard to kiss her.’
Later, he started to assault the woman in her sleep. She woke to find him abusing her and managed to alert her partner: ‘She saw Bridger become agitated and he said they had kissed and touched each other.’
The next day he sent the woman texts to apologise.
Other charges include him allegedly attacking another woman in her sleep and groping another.
All of the women told the court that Bridger had told them he was openly gay, and they believed him. And when he was arrested in January 2013, he denied any involvement with the crimes, saying that he was gay.
However, the recording perhaps indicates otherwise, say the prosecution, and he can’t explain why he sent texts apologising to the woman after the alleged incident. Plus, he’s saying that he had consensual sex with two of the women, which doesn’t sound very gay.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.