Nurse cleared of sexually assaulting schoolboy during street party

A nurse accused of sexually assaulting a schoolboy during a VE Day celebration street party has been cleared.

Katie Barrett, 40, had been on trial over the alleged incident in Camberley, Surrey.

The teenage boy claimed she told him ‘Come here baby, I want you to f**k me’ before touching his genitals.

He told his friends and police officers that he had been given alcohol by the nurse before she kissed him and led him upstairs to perform a sex act.

Ms Barrett denied the claims and said it was all a lie.

She had told the jury at Guildford Crown Court: ‘I did not ask him if he wanted to f**k me. I did not take him upstairs, I did not touch his penis and I did not make any of these sorts of comments.

‘I was just being friendly and sharing, there was nothing sinister in it at all. We were talking about school life, how he was coping with quarantine, what he wanted to do when he finished school and general appropriate conversation.

‘I mean I am a friendly person anyway, maybe my friendliness was misconstrued into something else but certainly there was no physical contact or anything like that.’

When asked about her reaction to the allegations, she had said: ‘Utter shock, absolute utter shock and I was very very upset.

‘I was drunk, I’ve never denied that but I knew what I was doing, I’d never do anything like that, I’ve got a son of my own.’

The jury spent less than two hours deliberating after a three-day trial.

She was cleared of the single charge of non-penetrative sexual activity with a child, after the jury was told by the defence counsel that there was no actual evidence of the sexual assault.

In the lead-up to the jury’s decision, defence barrister Jon Anders had said: ‘The defence say it is odd that he (the boy) shared this account of events with a girl he wasn’t close to, unless he had an ulterior motive – to get close to her, to impress her or just an excuse to talk to her. I dare say this is malicious, as it is teenage foolishness.’

Concluding the case, Judge Robert Fraser thanked the jury of six men and six women and the barristers before confirming Ms Barrett was free to leave the court.

As she left the court building, the nurse declined to comment on the case or her acquittal.

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