A hospital porter reportedly groped an 89-year-old patient, a trial heard today.

The woman - who has since passed away - told officers that she was attacked at Glasgow’s Gartnavel General Hospital in spring 2019.

She claimed that she slapped the porter away when he touched her under her pyjama top.

Robert Murphy, 64, is on trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court accused of sexually assaulting the woman.

He is also accused of two further charges of sexually assaulting a 79-year-old patient.

Murphy, of the city’s Knightswood, denies the charges. 

The court was told in evidence that the 89-year-old woman gave a police statement to constable Mark Cox four months before her death in October 2019.

The officer read out the woman’s statement to the court.

She stated that she was in Ward 8A when she was taken by a porter for a CT scan.

The woman claimed that the scan was cancelled and another porter was tasked with taking her back to the ward.

The woman told the officer that the porter lifted up her pyjama top and he put his hand on her shoulder.

She claimed that she thought that the porter was “trying to keep her warm”.

The woman said: “He put his hand down my top, it went through the neck part. 

“I didn’t have anything else on.”

The woman claimed that the man then groped her on the breast with his hand.

She added: “I didn’t give time for him to do anything else as I slapped it.

“There was no one around at the time.”

The woman claimed she reported the porter to a nurse the next day.

The same officer took a statement from the 79-year-old woman who claimed that a porter exposed her and made a comment.

She alleged she was groped by the porter and “he was trying to part my legs”.

The woman stated that she was told the porter’s name was Robert. 

Healthcare assistant Shirley Breckinridge, 63, told the jury that the 89-year-old woman reported the porter to her.

She said: “I was told he put his hand down her blouse and she slapped his hand and said ‘enough of that’.”

The witness said she reported the incident to the ward manager.

Geoffrey Forbes, defending, put it to the witness that Murphy in the dock looked different to who she believed was the porter.

The witness claimed that Murphy in the dock “looked like an older man”.

The trial continues before Sheriff Barry Divers.