A HOSPITAL patient who claims to have been indecently assaulted by a former Suffolk Police committee chairman vowed she would probably kill him if he tried it again.

By Tracey Sparling

A HOSPITAL patient who claims to have been indecently assaulted by a former Suffolk Police committee chairman vowed she would probably kill him if he tried it again.

The 58-year-old grandmother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made the remark as she gave evidence at Norwich Crown Court against Colin Jones.

Frequent breaks were taken during proceedings as the woman suffers from a life threatening illness which affects her joints, muscles and lungs.

The court was told she had been rushed to the emergency department of the West Suffolk Hospital "feeling like death" when her illness went into "full flare".

The prosecution alleged Jones, who is also a former Mayor of Bury St Edmunds, unnecessarily rubbed bedsore cream in intimate areas of her body when he worked as a healthcare assistant at the hospital in Bury St Edmunds on May 3, last year.

Jones, of Dane Common, Kedington, near Haverhill, agrees he treated the woman, but denies indecent assault.

The court heard that Jones used the cream after saying parts of her body looked sore during a bed bath.

Adam Budworth, defending Jones, found several contradictions in the woman's two statements to police, but she said one was written while she was on powerful painkillers, and said she lost track of time in hospital.

Mr Budworth suggested Jones couldn't find any washing cream instead of soap for the bedbath.

He asked why she had consented to the bedsore cream being applied when she didn't feel sore and she replied: "To this day I don't know. I think I had given up. I was in a lot of pain and couldn't breathe properly. I was very, very, tired. If he did that to me today I would probably kill him and I mean that.

"I was past caring when I went into hospital.

"Mr Jones is a very forceful personality. He came over as a very arrogant man. I did honestly feel as though whatever he did I had to accept."

She told the jury she decided it was too humiliating to tell her partner, but broke down and told him when he visited the same afternoon.

She said: "In hospital you trust people. I had my guard lowered. I thought I could trust this man. My husband thought he could leave me there to be cared for.

"We were going through a ritual of him changing his glasses - his damn glasses - first one pair then the other."

She said she would have refused the cream if he had offered her a choice.

She added that Jones had applied more cream later, after she'd used a commode.

She denied he'd asked her if he should continue with the cream.

When asked if she had encouraged Jones in any way she said: "I didn't think anybody would fancy me, or want to touch me voluntarily. Come on, I'm a grandmother lying in bed looking ill."

She said she told the ward sister she was wondering if she had given out the wrong signals, but added: "I was clutching at straws trying to understand a man's actions."

Mr Budworth concluded: "You have misinterpreted and exaggerated a great deal of what happened to you that day."

She replied: "On that day the last thing on my mind was sex or anything to do with those parts of my anatomy. I was very, very, poorly.

"I did not exaggerate because the last thing I want is to be here (in court). I need this like a hole in the head. I have nothing to gain by this at all."

The court also heard from the woman's partner who confirmed she'd told him the allegation about 20 minutes into his visit.

The trial continues today.