Man jailed for sexual assault on Bristol paramedic

Mikhail Artiukhin was being helped by paramedics when he sexually assaulted one of them

A man has been sentenced to 16 weeks in prison after he sexually assaulted a paramedic who had responded to a 999 call to help him.

Mikhail Artiukhin, 43, from Krasnodar, Russia, appeared at Bristol Magistrate's Court on 2 October.

The assault happened in the back of an ambulance outside Southmead Hospital on 29 September.

"Now I feel uncomfortable about working in an ambulance again," the paramedic said.

"I do my job because I want to help people in their time of need.

"I did not expect to be verbally abused, sexually assaulted, and threatened by someone I was trying to help," she added.

South Western Ambulance Service said the assault was "totally unacceptable."

"Our people come to work each day to help others when minutes matter, and to be assaulted will never be tolerated," said Grace Futers, Crime and Violence Reduction officer at the service.

Artiukhin, who works in merchant shipping, was also put on the sex offenders register for seven years.

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