Advisory: This story has graphic details from testimony at a sex-assault trial.
Evening medical visits from a hospital care aide turned to ordeals of sexual touching for three elderly women recovering in Aberdeen Hospital, Victoria provincial court heard Wednesday.
Amado Ceniza, 40, is on trial charged with three counts of sexual assault and four counts of interference with a disabled person. He has pleaded not guilty.
The offences are all said to have occurred between July 1 and July 15, 2018, at Aberdeen Hospital, 1450 Hillside Ave. in Victoria. Ceniza worked at Aberdeen on a casual basis.
Two of the three women, one in her 60s recovering from a stroke and another in her 70s dealing with a number of immobilizing health conditions, testified from motorized wheelchairs. The other, in her 80s, made her way to the witness stand using a walker.
All testified their genitals had been inappropriately touched while they were patients in Aberdeen Hospital. Various other offences were also described, from groping of breasts to unwanted kisses and hugs.
All three described how they took steps in the days following to report the incidents to hospital officials and file complaints with Victoria police.
The women testified the hospital had an evening bedtime routine. A care giver would clean their lower bodies and put on a clean adult diaper.
But they said their skin could get chafed where the diapers grip and encircle the upper thighs. Court also heard skin irritations and sores can be dangerous and their care is a priority. Nurses and other care providers apply creams to help healing and reduce irritation.
Two of the women said Ceniza, whom they both pointed out in court, applied cream to the upper thighs and then moved his hand to their genital areas.
The woman in her 70s said the touch to the genital area “really hurt.” She objected and managed to sit up and Ceniza spoke. “You’ll never see me again,” he said, according to the woman. “Can I have the house?”
The woman testified she replied by saying she was not his mother or his grandmother.
“Then he grabbed me and hugged me really tight and he tried to kiss me,” said the woman. “I kept pushing away.”
She then heard Ceniza repeat, “You’ll never see me again.” He grabbed and hugged her a second time and then left the room. “I phoned my friend after and said: ‘I think I’ve just been assaulted.’ ”
The woman in her 80s, who was in hospital recovering from an injury suffered in a fall, reported a different experience. Lying in bed and sleeping lightly, she woke to a man’s voice.
“Are you ready for me?” asked the man. The woman asked, ready for what? and was told for a personal hygiene cleanup. Unlike the other two women, it was not part of her evening care routine. She objected.
“You are going to get it anyway,” said the man’s voice.
What followed was a washing and drying followed by a massaging of cream onto the thighs, genital area and breasts. It ended with kisses to the neck and face. But that woman could not identify Ceniza. “I was just laying there with my eyes closed waiting for it to be over,” said the woman.
The following morning, after a poor night’s sleep, she spoke to a female caregiver.
“I said to her: ‘I haven’t said this to anyone yet but something very, very awful happened to me last night,’ ” the woman testified.
Later, she overheard another woman patient discussing with a hospital social worker a similar incident of sexual touching.
“I was listening probably more than I should have but I heard enough to say ‘Me Too.’ ”
The trial continues.
