A paramedic accused of being a sex pest to colleagues during 999 calls was like a “puppy that always needed attention”, a court heard today.
David Lee is on trial for a series of alleged attacks on his fellow Scottish Ambulance Service staff – including while they were responding to emergencies.
He faces a total of 15 charges said to have taken place between 2013 to 15 and involving five alleged victims.
Lee denies the allegations and has lodged a special defence claiming all sexual activity between him and the women was consensual.
One of his alleged victims claims Lee grabbed her hand and put it on his groin area while she was driving an ambulance down a dual carriageway.
And on their way back up the road the woman claimed that Lee then exposed himself to her in the back of the ambulance.
The jury heard from another complainer today during the third day of evidence.
A female ambulance technician, who had not long completed her training, was being mentored by the senior paramedic in the summer of 2015.
But after just a couple of shifts working together she claims his attitude quickly changed.
The 26-year-old witness told the court: “He just started to become a bit sleazier and flirtatious as the shift went on.
“He was like a puppy that always needed attention.
“He got some gloves down my top and asked if he could help get them back.
“I was exhausted. He said to me ‘this is what you do to me’ and pointed down at his crotch.
“He had an erection in the ambulance while he was driving.
“He just kept asking if I would touch it – saying that if I did then he’d leave me alone.
“Initially I started laughing in disbelief.”
During the same call-out to a patient’s house in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, the female emergency worker said Lee then attacked her in the back of the ambulance while she went to get her kit bag.
During cross examination, defence advocate David Moggach accused the witness of engaging in “flirtatious behaviour” with Lee.
But he said the sexual elements of her story “simply didn’t happen” and that was why she had not reported the claims to managers until someone else voiced similar allegations about Lee’s behaviour.
The woman replied: “That’s a complete lie.
“I felt too intimated to come forward.”
At one point Lee, of Westhill, Aberdeenshire, its alleged to have told a fellow member of staff: “We’re all animals and mammals, we are not meant to be monogamous.”
Prosecutors claim Lee groped four of his colleagues and spoke to them in an inappropriate sexual manner while on duty.
He is also accused of indecently exposing himself to two of the women.
The 31-year-old is also alleged to have acted in a “culpable and reckless” manner towards all the women when they were behind the wheel of an ambulance.
Court papers state he unfastened their seatbelts, put rubber gloves down their tops and slipped the vehicle out of gear.
The trial, before Sheriff Graeme Napier, continues.
