Terrified, contorted and crying with fear, Rivkah Grant sat in her hospital room, grappling with the fact that she had been sexually assaulted by a male paramedic.
This experience in a mental health hospital that was supposed to keep him safe would shake him to his core and leave him fearful and distrustful of mental health services for the rest of his life.
Rivkah, now 34, can describe in harrowing detail how she suffered abuse at the hands of NHS worker Krishna Jaganaikloo during her stay at Chase Farm Hospital in north London.
In January 2016, she was admitted to a women-only mental health ward after experiencing extreme depression and anxiety.
Recalling his first impressions, he said: Independent: “The ward was very chaotic. There didn’t seem to be any staff around. I was kind of left to my own devices and not really controlled. It was a pretty scary atmosphere.
“There was a staff member I met on the third night. “He seemed really nice and supportive and was actually the only person who cared about how I was doing.”
This male staff member named Jaganaikloo claimed that he was allowed to stay alone with Rivkah in her room for long periods of time.
“I didn’t realize at the time that having him in my room at night when I was alone with the door closed was a bad thing.”
One evening, he sexually assaulted Rivkah while she was in her room. After they left, Rivkah remembers sitting in tears trying to explain what had happened to a staff member.
I said, ‘I need to tell you something.’ And he said to me, ‘Just sleep.’ I’m crying and clearly need to explain something. But instead I was shut down.
The next morning, Rivkah claims that she tried to tell this to someone else working in the unit. However, it was claimed that he was told that there was no permanent staff on duty and therefore he had to wait until the next day.
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‘I would rather kill myself than stay in the ward’
Her ordeal was made worse when she was told she would have to return to the room where she said she was attacked because there was no other bed available.
“So I stayed in that room for another night, and I remember sitting there in terror; I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Rivkah said.
Two days later he was transferred to Edgware Hospital, where he was placed in a mixed-gender ward, which was supposedly outlawed more than a decade ago. Despite the government banning it in 2012, mixed wards are still used in mental health services.
Rivkah found herself in a ward with male patients “everywhere.”
He said: “The fear was indescribable, I sat there thinking ‘What could happen?’ I was thinking. There was no escape. “There was a constant fear that something would happen.”
Rivkah confided in a friend, who called the hospital and complained. They also contacted the police and Jaganaikloo was removed. He was convicted of one count of sexual assault in June 2017 and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Rivkah also settled a negligence claim against Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust (now called the North London Mental Health Partnership) in May 2019. The foundation said it was “very sorry” for what happened to Rivkah.
The trust said it has since strengthened its safeguarding process, including requiring all patients to have a member of staff of the same gender present during one-to-one observations. Six of the foundation’s total of 17 wards are mixed wards, but it claims there are also single-sex areas within these units.
Rivkah described the damage to her mental health: “I felt a lot more suicidal before I came here, if that’s possible.
“You believe you should be safe when you’re in the hospital. At that point you never think you’ll be unsafe. “I learned that there is no security in hospitals, mental health hospitals.”
Rivkah’s traumatic story is one of several stories that emerged during the joint investigation. Independent and Sky News, which revealed thousands of similar complaints made in NHS-run mental health units in just five years.
The 18-month investigation was sparked by the extraordinary story of Alexis Quinn, a former Great Britain swimmer who managed to escape from a mental health hospital after allegedly being sexually assaulted twice. His story is only featured on a podcast, Patient 11.
In December 2013, Alexis said she was admitted to an all-male mental health ward because there were no beds available for women. She claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a male patient within a few hours.
The woman claims her distress continued in the months that followed after she was admitted to a ward with mixed-gender communal areas and was attacked again. These horrific experiences triggered a dramatic four-year war that would force him to escape the unit where he was kept and eventually flee the country.
However Independent and there were many more women like Alexis and Rivkah, Sky News revealed.
In 2015, a desperate Stephanie Tutty kicked open the fire door on her ward and ran towards the exit of the Essex mental health unit where she had been locked up for five months.
At age 19, she sought refuge in a hospital to treat the trauma of being raped a year earlier. Instead, she says, she was the victim of a “predatory” member of staff in a position of trust who subjected her to horrific sexual harassment.
Now a mother of two and studying criminology, she shares her story for the first time, recalling the events that followed her admission to the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust in 2015.
“What happened [the abuser] It will always leave a lasting impression on me, even more so than the first rape that haunted me. He is a predator. “There is no other word for it,” he said. Independent.
Stephanie was raped and became ill in 2014. After attempting to take his own life, he was sectioned and hospitalized.
She claimed that after she was admitted, her abuser began grooming her.
He says he ingratiated himself by bringing her banned substances such as energy drinks and alcohol. “He told me he was the only one [staff] member who believed in me… That’s why I trusted him,” said Stephanie.
She claims that gradually his actions escalated and he began making sexual jokes and “grabbing her ass”. Stephanie claims this then progressed to more physical contact and eventually months of horrific sexual abuse; Stephanie claims this left her exposed to intimate injuries.
“I was doing [sexual acts] “Because I felt that he really cared about me and that there were strong emotions involved,” she said. “But I was very sick. I was disturbed by everything. I was too involved to do anything about it. I remember crying, but I don’t remember ever saying no. “It took me a long time to get over it, but I haven’t quite gotten over it.”
He said these attacks were possible because staff were allowed to stay alone with Stephanie in her room. Independent.
Desperate to get away from him, Stephanie tried to escape the unit and once succeeded, but was brought back by the police.
Eventually his mental health deteriorated so much that he was transferred to a different unit for non-serious patients. Only then did the abuse stop, he says.
Months later, after he was discharged, he encountered the man outside the hospital, which he said ultimately prompted him to report it.
Police investigated Stephanie’s claims for two years. But she later received a devastating letter saying there was “insufficient evidence” to send a file to the Crown Prosecution Service. The letter continued: “This doesn’t mean you don’t believe me. However, for a prosecution to take place, there must be sufficient evidence to provide a realistic possibility of prosecution.”
Her mother, who took leave from work to support her daughter, said: Independent: “The impact it had on my Steph… God, she ruined her life, totally ruined her life. the things they do [the hospital] If I had provided mental health services to my family, my own life, my daughter’s life and my wife’s life, not just them, but in general, I could write an autobiography. “We went through hell for five years.”
Stephanie applied to the hospital in December 2017 and complained about the allegations of harassment she received. Independent. Despite acknowledging her complaint, the foundation never confirmed whether it would investigate.
Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust, which is facing a public inquiry, refused to comment specifically on Stephanie’s allegations but said “reports like this are immediately passed to our safeguarding team, fully investigated and actioned.”
An Essex Police spokesman said: “We carried out a full investigation following the allegation of sexual assault. At the end of the investigation, we did not find sufficient evidence to support the accusation. However, no case is ever closed and, as in all cases, if new information emerges, the case will be re-examined.”
An NHS spokesman said:: “Sexual assault is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated on the NHS; We are taking action to keep patients and staff safe, including providing better reporting mechanisms, training and support under the NHS’s new Sexual Safety Charter.
“NHS England has advised all Trusts and local health systems to appoint a domestic abuse and sexual violence specialist for patients and staff to report incidents and access support – there are now more than 300.”
If you need to seek support for something sexual that has happened to you without your consent, you can call Rape Crisis at: 0808 500 222224 hours a day, every day of the week