Norfolk care home worker jailed for sex assault on resident

Jossy Joseph, 55, was working at a home in Swanton Novers, near Melton Constable, when he carried out the attack in 2005.

His victim was a resident who had suffered brain damage when she was younger.

Norwich Crown Court heard she had been put to bed on October 17, 2005.

When staff checked on her the following morning she seemed "withdrawn, distant and agitated", and told them: "A man came into my room last night and touched me".

The matter was reported to police who opened an investigation.

All staff agreed to be DNA tested apart from Joseph who refused.

On December 26, 2005, he flew to India with his wife who had called his work claiming he had suffered a heart attack and needed time off to recover and to deal with his alcohol problems.

Norwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest)

He later moved to Australia where, between 2013 and 2015, he picked up several convictions for domestic violence.

Nicholas Bleaney, prosecuting, said that he had to give his DNA as part of those investigations.

Joseph returned to India in 2016, by which time DNA obtained as a result of the Australia offences had been matched to a sample from the Norfolk sex attack.

He was then extradited to the UK - although the process was held up by the Covid pandemic - and returned to the country in January, when he admitted the offence.

The court heard Joseph, who was moved from being a carer to relief driver following suspicions he had been under the influence of alcohol at work, had told a fellow worker he was in a sexless marriage just weeks before the attack.

Mr Bleaney said the victim had been assessed by a consultant psychiatrist as not having the capacity to make informed decisions about consent.

Jossy Joseph (Image: Norfolk Police)

Joseph, now of HMP Norwich, appeared at court on Tuesday (September 12) having admitted sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder impending choice.

Jailing him for four years Judge Andrew Shaw said there had been a "significant degree of planning and a clear abuse of trust".

Judge Andrew Shaw (Image: Newsquest)He said Joseph had "deliberately targeted" the victim and was "clearly a threat to women especially when you're under the influence of alcohol".

Before Joseph was sentenced the court heard parts of an impact statement from the victim's mother, who said she was "horrified and shocked" about what had happened.

She said: "How can anyone do this to a person, particularly to one so vulnerable without any capacity to understand or consent?

"She had no idea about her body and no concept of sexual behaviour.

"I feel guilty at not being able to protect her."

But the victim's mother said "a lot of my anger" was aimed at those in charge of where she was "because of what the care home had allowed to happen".

The victim has since left the care home and is being looked after elsewhere.

Matthew McNiff, mitigating, said he accepted the defendant had "abused his lawful presence on the site" for what he insisted was an "opportunistic" offence.

He said there was "no evidence of previous contact between the parties".

Joseph was also put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.