Driver admits sex assaults on three women in ambulance

James Henderson. Photo / Kenny Rodger

A former Auckland ambulance driver has admitted indecently assaulting three women in the back of his ambulance.

James Brent Henderson, 36, pleaded guilty to the charges at a sentence indication hearing at the Auckland District Court this week.

The three allegations related to separate incidents that happened over a nine-month period in 1999.

He was convicted by a jury of five counts of indecent assault in August last year, but the convictions were later quashed by the Court of Appeal because of concerns raised about the trial judge's comments to the jury. A new trial was ordered.

But Henderson, whose name has been suppressed until now, pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault this week before a new trial had been scheduled.

He spent some months in custody until his appeal was heard, and now faces a possible home detention sentence.

Henderson left Auckland for Mosgiel, near Dunedin, before an investigation was launched in 2000.

He worked as an emergency department nurse with the Otago District Health Board - a fact that also could not be reported until now.

Otago regional chief nursing and midwifery officer Leanne Samuel told the Herald that once the hospital was advised that there was a police investigation - and before charges were laid - Henderson was moved out of the ER and into a non-clinical department.

During the employment process his referees were spoken to and none raised any concerns.

Henderson was fired from St John Ambulance on March 6, 2000, after a victim made a formal complaint.

At his original sentencing, Judge Anna Johns said the effect on his victims was significant, even though the offending happened nearly a decade before.

"Quite clearly, they were women who relied on him ... the abuse of trust has made them more cautious and less trusting of emergency services."

The judge did not accept a defence claim the offending was "a step too far", telling Henderson what happened was not acceptable legitimate examination that went too far.

Prosecutor Phil Hamlin said Henderson had abused a position of trust and abused vulnerable women in his care. One of the victims was a schoolgirl who said he pulled down her skirt and underwear and touched her as she lay in the ambulance.

She was being taken to hospital with minor knee and elbow injuries. Another victim collapsed on a Ponsonby street while she was jogging and woke in the ambulance - to find Henderson examining her.

He exposed her breasts, making her uncomfortable, and touched them, before putting her bra and T-shirt back into their original position.

Henderson is on bail until sentencing in December.