Seven years for sex attack mortician

William Martin offered to show bodies to the teenagers

A man has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of carrying out sex attacks on two teenage girls in the mortuary of the Devon hospital where he worked.

William Martin, 56, gave vodka to the 16-year-old and the 18-year-old, offered to show them bodies and showered with them before assaulting them, the jury at Exeter Crown Court was told.

The married father-of-two of Meadow Road, Barnstaple, was convicted on Tuesday by the jury of attempting to rape the 16-year-old at the mortuary at North Devon District Hospital, Barnstaple, in November last year.

The jury also found him guilty of a single charge of indecent assault on the 18-year-old girl at the mortuary between January and November last year.

Quite how and why that is so at this stage of your life, I do not know Judge Graham Cottle

He was sentenced to five years for the attempted rape of the 16-year-old girl and a further two years, to run consecutively, for the indecent assault on the 18-year-old girl.

He was cleared of three further charges of indecent assault on the 18-year-old.

"The facts of this case leave me quite satisfied that you pose a risk to females," said Judge Graham Cottle as he passed sentence.

"Quite how and why that is so at this stage of your life, I do not know, but the fact that you pose a risk is clearly of obvious relevance to the question of sentence and the sentencing process."

Judge Cottle told Martin, who is no longer employed at the Barnstaple hospital where he began work 20 years ago, that he subjected the 16-year-old to a "very frightening experience which continued over a prolonged period of time".

The court heard on Monday that one alleged victim nearly passed out after Martin disfigured a cadaver's head.

The court heard the 16-year-old girl was interested in nursing and went to an open day at the hospital where he worked.

It had been arranged he would give her a lift home, but he told her they would have to wait while a body was delivered - an excuse to get her to the mortuary, said the prosecutor.

Vodka and cola

Martin gave her a "hefty slug" of vodka and cola to calm her nerves and gave her surgical clothes to wear, telling her to strip off all her garments first so as not to contaminate them.

Martin changed in the same room as her, then took the girl to the post mortem examination room.

Back in the mortuary office, the "unsettled" girl was told by Martin she would have to shower so as not to "carry out the contamination".

The attacks took place between January and November last year

The court heard he got into the shower with her and later performed a sex act on the "terrified" girl in the mortuary rest room.

When a text from her mother arrived on her mobile phone she could not reply as she had little credit, but Martin offered his.

While he was fetching it, the girl made a 16-second 999 call to the police, which was played to the court.

When he returned with his phone, she texted her mother saying he was trying to rape her.

After Martin took her home, she told her parents what had happened and the police were called and interviewed her.

He told the police that he had tried to have sex with the girl but she had initiated it and consented to it.

Surgical gown

He said she had asked to see the bodies, asked for the vodka, and stripped off unrequested when he gave her a surgical gown.

The 18-year-old told the jury by TV link that on her first visit to the mortuary Martin offered her vodka and coke, and asked if she wanted to see a body.

She said he told her to change into green hospital clothes and wear no underwear.

He showed her a body but she "felt a bit faint" so he put it back.

"He asked whether I wanted a shower in case the smell stuck to me," said the girl.

Mortician 'impotent'

When she was in the shower the defendant got in with her, rubbed her with mousse and indecently assaulted her.

The teenager said he indecently assaulted her at the mortuary on three further occasions.

The jury returned not guilty verdicts on those three counts.

Richard Crabbe, defending, told the court last week that Martin was impotent and had a prosthetic testicle.

"You may think that would present tremendous practical difficulties in indulging in non-consensual sex," Mr Crabbe told the jury.