Wellington - A 35-year-old paramedic was found guilty Wednesday of indecently assaulting a schoolgirl in the back of an ambulance that was taking her to hospital after a car crash, news reports said. A jury in the Auckland District Court found the man guilty on four charges of indecent assault on the girl, who was 16 and wearing her school uniform at the time, and two similar charges on other patients.
The girl told the court during the trial, "I knew what he was doing was wrong. He pulled down my skirt and touched me."
She said the St John ambulance paramedic, whose name was suppressed by the judge, also pulled down her underpants and touched her body.
His lawyer, Judith Ablett Kerr, had argued, "The defence says what he did with each of these patients was to carry out perfectly proper medical procedures - what he believed to be the appropriate way to provide information for the hospital staff."
The paramedic was cleared on five other charges of indecent assault and sexual violation involving four other women in the back of his ambulance in Auckland in 1999 and 2000.
He was remanded on bail for sentence in October.
