A HOSPITAL care worker has been jailed after he sexually abused a suicidal teenage patient on his ward and tried to seduce another patient who later killed herself.

Eric Kusi, 29, has been sent to prison immediately, after a jury convicted him of six counts of sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder by a care worker. He will serve an eight-year sentence.

The jury heard that Kusi was responsible for the care of adolescent self-harming girls on a specialist ward but used his position of trust to satisfy his own lust.

His sentencing followed a retrial of the case after an earlier hearing had to be abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Giving evidence at the trial, the 15-year-old complainant - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had told the jury Kusi had been suspended from his job after rumours about him and Alisha started going around the unit.

Although Kusi was never charged with offences involving 18-year-old Alisha Watts, she featured in evidence in this case in which Judge Paul Dugdale revealed she had committed suicide after leaving the Berkshire hospital where she was patient of the carer.

The jury was shown the video interview because the teenage complainant in the trial and Alisha had been communicating about Kusi.

Kusi was arrested by police after one of his patients - the 15-year-old girl - told how he had been demanding oral sex from her and inappropriately kissed and cuddled her.

The jury at Reading Crown Court was told that his young victim claimed that while Kusi was sexually abusing her he was also "having the same conversations" with Alisha, a patient in a nearby bed at the hospital.

Alisha, a student at Kendrick School in Reading, was discovered dead with her teddy bear and surrounded by notes to her loved ones on February 6, 2018.

Although she was not the complainant in the trial, the jury heard that Alisha had also been approached by Kusi in a similar manner to the 15-year-old complainant.

In her interview with the police, the 15-year-old girl said: "All the things he was saying to me, he was saying to Alisha.

"He would go to Alisha's room a few days after she came. He would go into her room like he was doing with me. He was talking to her, he was not talking to me as much. It made me feel jealous."

She added: "He said he liked and loved me, not Alisha. He said, 'I would rather go to prison for you'."

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Earlier, the jury had heard how Kusi told the 15-year-old patient she had a "fat stomach" before sexually abusing her.

In a piece of creative writing shown to the jury, she wrote: "I have no self-esteem since you called me fat. Just be aware of other people's feelings.

"I hope you are proud of yourself. I still feel disgusting. Fat and disgusting. Fat b*** that deserves to be six feet underground."

The teenage complainant had been admitted to the specialist hospital ward after experiencing suicidal thoughts and incidents of "severe" self-harm, the court heard.

Kusi had started to "cross the line" by kissing the girl, who required four welfare checks an hour, in her room. He then demanded she perform sexual acts on him.

When she was interviewed by police, the girl had said: "He was saying the reason that he was doing what he was doing was to help me and to make me feel good and to help me feel better, as a distraction.

"He said we were a team and I promised him I would not say anything."

The girl said Kusi, aged 26 at the time the abuse took place in 2017, had saved her name as "Sweet" in his phone contacts, promised to take her to Africa and claimed they would have four children, the court heard.

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Opening the case for the prosecution, Walton Hornsby had said: "She [the complainant] was described by various people as a nice girl and there were no complaints about her behaviour, but clearly she was mentally vulnerable and easy to take advantage of.

"The defendant was kind, he was an attractive young man and he befriended the complainant and that in itself would not have resulted in his appearance at Reading Crown Court.

"That kindliness and friendliness crossed the line, from being a comforting presence, a reassuring presence, the defendant became a sexual partner to the complainant."

A defence barrister told the jury his client “deserves our condemnation."

Ged O’Connor, defending Kusi who did not enter the witness box to give evidence, claimed there was no independent evidence to prove the defendant had been having a sexual relationship with the victim.

Mr O’Connor said: “There can be no doubt about it, Eric Kusi’s behaved appallingly in his actions as a support worker on that unit in 2017. There is no doubt that he behaved inappropriately, unprofessionally and that he abused his position.

“I acknowledge that and I make no apology to him for saying these things because it is beyond doubt that this is the case. I acknowledge that he deserves our condemnation for the way he acted and for developing these relationships with these two, young, vulnerable women.”

Kusi, of Norwood Road, Reading, had denied the charges.