A hospital nurse who was spotted resting his head on a naked and unconscious woman patient’s stomach to take a selfie has been fired and arrested after cops found similar images on his mobile phone.
Christopher Peter Lambros, 61, a nurse working in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the St Mary’s Hospital in the city of Grand Junction, in Mesa County, the US state of Colorado, was arrested on 25th October.
Mesa County court documents revealed that he has been charged with three counts of sexual assault after allegedly penetrating at least one unconscious victim – a patient at the hospital where he worked – with his fingers.
The documents also reveal that he allegedly referred to footage of his assaults as his “Dexter collection” in what is understood to be a dark reference to the hit TV series ‘Dexter’, about a serial killer who collected blood samples from his victims to keep as mementoes.
Lambros was arrested after one of his colleagues allegedly walked in on him assaulting an unconscious woman, who has not been named, with the documents saying: “When she pulled back the curtain she saw the patient, who was unconscious, with her gown pulled up, exposing her breasts, and the bed sheet was pulled down, exposing the patient’s genitals.”
The documents also allege that the colleague, who has not been named either, witnessed Lambros “with his head on the patient’s stomach, with his face toward the patient’s feet, with what she believed [was] his right arm extended, holding what she was sure was an unknown make/model cell phone in a black case, in a position as if he was taking a ‘selfie’ picture.”
After being busted by the colleague, Lambros allegedly dropped his phone on the patient’s bed before covering her back up and leaving the room. Lambros’ colleague then reported him to her supervisor.
When questioned by the authorities, Lambros allegedly claimed that he had been giving the patient an injection and denied any wrongdoing, saying that he had “petty workplace issues” with the witness.
But officers seized his phone and managed to access it after obtaining a search warrant to unlock it after Lambros refused to provide them with his pin code.
The court documents state that an analysis of the phone showed “photographs and videos of Lambros posing with a number of victims who were unconscious, in the hospital setting”,
The document also states that images retrieved on the device showed Lambros “photographing himself sucking on victims’ breasts and digitally penetrating victims.”
The court documents revealed that the suspect allegedly deleted nearly 200 photographs from the device between 30th of April 9th July, adding: “In video recovered from 6/24/2022 at 17:30 hours, Lambros can be heard whispering to the camera saying ‘don’t ever get rid of these videos’ and ‘you need to keep them forever… this is your Dexter collection’.”
Lambros, who has since been fired from the hospital, is currently being held on a USD 250,000 (GBP 224,000) bond and has been charged with three counts of sexual assault.
Bryan Johnson, President of St Mary’s Medical Center. said in a statement: “What this former nurse is accused of is reprehensible and goes against everything we believe and value at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Patients put their trust in us and should feel safe in our care.
“We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our patients from those who intend to cause harm. We are doing everything possible to ensure our patients continue to feel safe and respected while receiving care at St. Mary’s Medical Center.”
The authorities are currently working to identify the victims and determine how many patients were allegedly assaulted by Lambros. Investigators said that “it appears there are a minimum of three victims”.
The investigation is ongoing.
