Peter Thistlethwaite: Paramedic guilty of sexually touching female patients

The private paramedic touched eight women either near the vagina or on their breasts during bogus medical checks at Sydney train stations, a jury has found.

A disgraced paramedic has been found guilty of sexually touching eight young women under his care at train stations across Sydney including by pulling down the underwear of one patient and touching her around the groin.

A jury returned its verdict on Tuesday in the trial of Peter John Thistlethwaite, 40, who was found guilty of 16 sexual touching offences relating to eight different victims throughout 2019.

The Jannali man was found not guilty on just one of the 17 sexual touching charges he was facing in the NSW District Court during his trial.

Peter Thistlethwaite has been found guilty on 16 out of 17 counts. Picture: Adam Yip

The jury deliberated for about a day following the four-week trial before giving the verdict.

The jury heard Thistlethwaite, who was employed as a private paramedic by Safety Australia Group, conducted bogus medical checks on the eight female victims at various train stations across Sydney where he was working.

On each occasion he either touched a victim’s breasts with a stethoscope or checked a victim’s lower abdomen with his hands including near the vagina while inside first aid rooms.

The jury heard Thistlethwaite’s treatment went “beyond the normal scope of paramedical practice” and the victims he treated had only suffered from relatively minor illnesses such as dizziness and fainting.

The jury heard in one incident he pulled down the underwear of a 25-year-old woman inside a first aid room at Redfern Train Station before touching the victim around the groin area.

Peter Thistlethwaite outside court during his trial. Picture: Adam Yip

“The accused pulled her jeans and underwear down to below her crotch. Her vagina was visible,” Crown prosecutor Stephen Barlow said.

“(First aid paramedics) are explicitly taught there is no reason to examine the genital area or pubic area of a female patient unless that patient is in labour.”

The offences, which he was found guilty on, happened between January and July 2019 and involved female victims aged between 17 and 28.

The only sexual touching charge he was found not guilty on related to his allegedly giving an inappropriate massage to a victim in November 2018.

During the trial, Thistlethwaite denied removing the underwear of any of his patients and his lawyer Stephen Russell argued his client was carrying out his duties as a first aid paramedic, checking heart rates and assessing abnormalities in the abdomen region of some of his patients.

Thistlethwaite had pleaded not guilty to all 17 charges.

Thistlethwaite will be sentenced in August and he currently remains on bail.