Sask. paramedic sexually assaulted by patient during ambulance ride

(File photo)

Warning: The following story contains details some readers may find disturbing. 

A Saskatchewan man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a paramedic who was called to treat his overdose in the summer of 2021.

The victim and her partner were called to the campground outside Craven, Sask. in the early hours of June 30, 2021 after receiving a tip from a third-party caller that 49-year-old Chad McLaughlin may be experiencing an overdose, according to a decision from Judge Kevin Lang published last month.

The two paramedics met an RCMP constable at the scene and the three entered McLaughlin’s trailer together. The victim said McLaughlin’s wife told them her husband drank 40 ounces of vodka that day.

First responders also found an empty bottle of Zopiclone, a sleeping pill and three pills scattered on the floor of the trailer.

According to Lang, the victim described McLaughlin as cooperative at first, and responsive, although very intoxicated. Since they were unsure if he had consumed sleeping pills along with the vodka, they decided to take him to hospital.

The two loaded him into their ambulance and left the campground, with the victim staying with McLaughlin in the back of the vehicle while her partner drove.

Immediately after the ambulance left the scene, Lang says McLaughlin began asking the victim for her phone number, where she lived and told her he wanted to kiss her and that he would leave his wife for her.

The victim said she tried to deflect the comments by saying “no,” and that she was married.

During the final minutes of the drive to a Regina hospital, McLaughlin pulled the victim on top of him and grabbed her head and attempted to kiss her, says Lang.

The victim was wearing a mask but she told court she remembered seeing the man’s lips and tongue as he attempted to kiss her over the mask by force.

She was able to pull herself free and sit in the corner of the ambulance, but testified that McLaughlin then began to unbuckle himself from the stretcher, and when she rushed over to stop him he grabbed her breasts, legs and groin.

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In her testimony, the victim said she repeatedly told the man in a stern voice “no” and “stop” for the rest of the trip to the hospital, but said that he continued to touch her for the remainder of the trip.

She said she received a cut to her lip and swelling in the area as well as some bruising as a result of the incident, adding that the man’s conduct stopped as soon as they arrived at the Regina General Hospital.

McLaughlin testified that he did not have much memory of the day, including the ambulance ride, but knows that he likely would have drank a 40 ounce bottle of vodka throughout the day.

He also said that he was prescribed the sleeping pills and was told to take one per day, adding he generally takes one or two a day.

The document said McLaughlin had many injuries in his lifetime and was on pain medication for at least 15 years. He was also on a heart medication, along with the sleeping pills.

McLaughlin said he believed he took at least seven of the sleeping pills that day, using vodka to swallow them before bed in what he believed was an attempt to take his own life.

In his defence, lawyer Nicolas Brown argued McLaughlin should be found not guilty based on a defence of “self-induced extreme intoxication akin to automatism.”

Lang disagreed — he said McLaughlin’s testimony was not credible.

“In the Court’s view, on the day in question and at the relative time, Mr. McLaughlin was acting consciously but impulsively as opposed to unconsciously and involuntary,” Lang said in his decision.

“Accordingly, I find that Mr. McLaughlin has not met the onus upon him (based on a balance of probabilities) and his defence of self-induced extreme intoxication akin to automatism must fail.”

The full court document can be read here.