A nurse at high-security Broadmoor hospital was spared a jail term today after she admitted engaging in sexual activity with a mentally-ill patient.
Rhoda Sibanda, 31, developed a relationship with a convicted prisoner at the psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.
The pair sent "affectionate" letters to each other and Sibanda, a Zimbabwean national, gave the man a ring, Oxford Crown Court heard.
The married mother of two of Appledore, Bracknell, Berkshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity by a care worker with a person with a mental disorder.
Judge Julian Hall sentenced her to six months imprisonment suspended for one year. He gave her a one-year supervision order and told her to sign the sex offenders register.
She was also ordered to pay £250 costs.
Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said the male patient was a rapist who had also been convicted of arson.
Mr Ward-Jackson said Sibanda developed a relationship with the man, who suffers from severe personality disorder, after she was transferred to his ward and became his primary carer.
He told the court the patient sent Sibanda a letter revealing his feelings, which she rejected at first.
In an interview the patient, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "She told me she had changed her mind and I said that I loved her and she replied saying that she loved me.
"She told me to wait until she was on night duty so we could see each other in more intimate circumstances."
Mr Ward-Jackson said the pair spoke and held hands through the hatch on the patient's bedroom door, which was locked at night.
He said on the two occasions relating to the charges, Sibanda contravened the rules of the hospital by entering the patient's room at night.
On the first time she visited his room, the pair kissed and on the second instance there was non-penetrative sexual touching between them.
Their relationship was brought to a halt when a therapy assistant noticed the pair acting strangely,
Mr Ward-Jackson said: "A therapy assistant, Dean Dowlutta, noticed the complainant and Ms Sibanda walking towards a laundry room in an area where patients are not normally permitted to be.
"The patient later approached Mr Dowlutta and said he was worried that he was in trouble and would be locked in isolation.
"He said he was having a sexual relationship with a nurse and he said they had seen each other on five occasions, that they were in love with each other and planned to move to her native Zimbabwe when he left the hospital.
"The whole thing was making him depressed and he felt that he could not cope with the situation.
"He showed him affectionate letters that she had written and a ring she had given to him."
Mr Dowlutta reported the situation to senior management. Sibanda was suspended and the police were called in.
Officers searching Sibanda's home found some of the patient's clothing and a personal letter she had written to him.
Sibanda was later sacked for breaching security protocols.
The sexual acts are alleged to have taken place at the psychiatric hospital between June 1 and August 28 last year.
Judge Julian Hall told her: "You should have been in control of what you did and you should have, at the very least, told your supervisors what was happening.
"The regimes at hospital like Broadmoor are of necessity. Both staff and patients are vulnerable and they become more vulnerable if the relationship between the staff and the patients becomes too close."
The hospital is home to some of England's most notorious mentally-ill criminals. It houses Peter Sutcliffe - the Yorkshire Ripper - who was jailed for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of others in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester in the 1970s.
