Peter Thistlethwaite: Paramedic jailed for sexually touching women
A former Sydney Trains paramedic is behind bars after sexually touching several young women, as young as 17, after they had vomited, felt faint or passed out on public transport.
Inner West
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A “serial and predatory” Sydney Trains paramedic has been jailed for several bogus medical checks that left young women feeling humiliated after he sexually touched them when they fainted on public transport.
Peter John Thistlethwaite’s conduct against eight women, some as young as 17, was described by a judge as “calculated” and “brazen” in court on Friday as he handed over his belongings and was led to the cells.
The women had felt faint, vomited or passed out on trains before Thistlethwaite repeatedly touched them near their genitalia and on their breasts when there was “no genuine medical reason to do so”.
Jannali man Thistlewaite on multiple occasions put a stethoscope and his fingers near the vagina of several of the young women, the court heard.
The Downing Centre District Court was told on one occasion Thistlethwaite told one of the women she “was beautiful” and another that she was “naughty” and joked about “spanking her on the a***”.
On another occasion he told one of the women after he treated her to call him when she got to work.
She called from a landline because she did not want Thistlethwaite to have her number, the court heard, but he then texted her that night from the mobile number she left on a patient information sheet.
Another woman was asked out for a coffee date after Thistlethwaite treated her.
The women all described their experiences as “humiliating” and “very uncomfortable” recounting to police how Thistlethwaite showed them pictures of his buttock and back tattoos.
One woman said she feared Thistlewaite would turn up to her home after he got her number from a patient information form, the court was told.
At trial Thistlethwaite denied several of the incidents.
The jury rejected his account after a four-week trial and convicted him of 16 counts of aggravated sexual touching.
“I 100 per cent think I haven’t done anything legally wrong,” he previously said.
The court heard in a report tendered as part of the proceedings Thistlethwaite said the charges had impacted him and that the women “will go through life thinking they are victims for something that didn’t happen”.
Judge Michael King described his actions as “serial and predatory sexual offending”.
Thistlewaite was jailed for three years and six months, but will be released on parole after serving two years.
ANTON.ROSE@NEWS.COM.AU
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