Care worker hid recording device to catch his fiancee, 26, having sex, hearing told

A care worker accused of having sex with a boy in her care was secretly recorded apparently in the act on a recording device hidden under her bed by her fiance, a hearing was told today. 

Then-engaged Matthew Griffiths said he believed his intended Jade Fitzpatrick when she told him that the allegations were false, but when he kept being told by people that something was going on he placed the gadget to discover the truth.

He recorded heavy breathing and someone apparently having sex, and thought he recognised the North East accent of the 17-year-old youth.

Griffiths, who worked for a different company to Fitzpatrick, told Social Care Wales’ fitness to practise committee: ‘I assumed it was him.’

Jade Fitzpatrick, 26, was spotted hugging and kissing the teenage boy a hearing was told

The pair allegedly sparked a relationship together – and booked to go on a 200-mile trip from the home to Thorpe Park

Fitzgerald, who worked in the Wrexham care home where the teenager was a resident, claimed that the other person was ‘someone from the university’.

Fitzpatrick, who is not participating in the hearing, faces four charges arising from her alleged relationship with the youth between January and September, 2020.

She was suspended when a neighbour reported seeing them kissing, but Griffiths, who also faces four charges relating to alleged dishonesty over the recording and his failure to report his suspicions, told the committee: ‘Jade told me the allegations were false.’

He said he felt sorry for her when she was arrested by the police investigating the matter, but he told the hearing: ‘My head was all over the place.’

Concerns were raised about Fitzpatrick when the teenager damaged a car after becoming angry

Asked by presenting officer Graham Miles why he had put the recorder under the bed, he said: ‘People were telling me that Jade was having an affair but I never suspected it was with Young Person 1. (how the youth has been identified at the hearing).

‘I believed her, but people kept coming back to me and saying she was doing this and that.’

Asked why he had lied to the police and his boss about making a recording when he had played it to another colleague, Griffiths replied: ‘I panicked.’

He said his actions were totally out of character and that he had been receiving therapy because of the trauma of the whole affair.

‘I can only say I am sorry for what I did. I am a different person now.’

The hearing continues.