An ambulance worker who pointed his mobile phone camera at a female patient's private parts while she was unconscious has been jailed for four months.

An ambulance worker who pointed his mobile phone camera at a female patient's private parts while she was unconscious has been jailed for four months.

Ambulance technician Scott Jenkins, 30, took out the camera after making offensive remarks about the woman as she sat drunk and naked from the waist down in the back of his ambulance in Edinburgh in February.

The married father of two held out the phone and crouched in front of her, telling his colleagues "she'll never remember".

He was arrested after a female paramedic reported him to a team leader in the Scottish Ambulance Service.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Andrew Lothian described it as "one of the grossest breaches of trust" he had ever heard.

He told Jenkins: "You were only in this lady's presence in order that you could help her and you did precisely the opposite. If it wasn't for the courage and good sense of one of your colleagues this would have been swept under the carpet."

Jenkins, who has been suspended since March 1, denied the incident and stood trial last month but was found guilty of committing a breach of the peace by taking or trying to take a photograph of a female patient in his care.

The incident took place when Jenkins and a male colleague attended an emergency call to the Cowgate in Edinburgh.

When they arrived at around 1am, two other paramedics were at the scene. They helped the drunk woman into the ambulance, but she declared that she needed the toilet and took down her tracksuit trousers and pants.

Jenkins, of Balfron Loan, Edinburgh, made a rude comment, then crouched down with his mobile phone held out towards her.

Paramedic assistant Ruth Anderson, 28, who was also present, reported the incident to superiors days later.

She said she did not know if Jenkins had taken a picture.

No photographs of the woman were found on Jenkins's mobile phone.