Nurse Recorded Himself Sexually Assaulting Unconscious Patients, Referenced TV Show with 'Dexter Collection'
Christopher P. Lambros was sentenced to 22 years in prison for sexually assaulting multiple female patients at a Colorado hospital
Content warning: The following article contains disturbing descriptions of sexual assault.
A Colorado nurse was sentenced to 22 years in prison following his guilty plea to numerous sexual assault charges after images were found on his phone depicting him assaulting women in the intensive care unit, authorities confirm to PEOPLE.
Christopher P. Lambros, 62, was arrested in October 2022 after being sent home on administrative leave in July, when he was caught in the act, Dan Rubinstein, District Attorney for Mesa County, Colo., tells PEOPLE.
He was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to six counts of attempted sexual assault.
In July 2022, an employee at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo. walked into a room in the ICU where she found Lambros with an unconscious patient who had her gown pulled up, with Lambros' “head on the patient's stomach, with his face toward the patient's feet,” according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by PEOPLE.
Lambros was in the act of taking a “selfie” with the patient’s breasts and genitals exposed, the affidavit stated.
Police recovered thousands of photos and videos from Lambros’ phone during their investigation and have since documented 13 separate victims, five of whom have been identified, Rubinstein tells PEOPLE.
Three of those victims are deceased; the families of all the identified victims have been notified, and some cooperated with the investigation.
In one of the videos of an assault, Lambros was heard saying, "Don't ever get rid of these videos," and that the videos were his "Dexter collection" — an apparent reference to the Showtime television show Dexter, about a serial killer.
Rubinstein tells PEOPLE that the victims were all female and 45 years or older in age.
When police questioned Lambros after he was caught, he claimed he was doing a medical procedure on the patient, and he said he'd been having "petty workplace issues" with the employee who reported him, according to the affidavit.
After police seized Lambros' phone, they recovered numerous photos of him “sucking on victims' breasts and digitally penetrating victims,” and many of the photos and videos had been deleted, according to the affidavit. Rubinstein says there were between 40 to 50 photographs of each incident.
The files recovered all show Lambros in the hospital in his scrubs.
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The timeline of the assaults remains a matter of dispute, says Rubinstein: Lambros had said the assaults took place between 2021 and 2022, but Rubinstein claims there is evidence to indicate the assaults go as far back as 2016.
“Lambros’ crimes were devastating to the victims and their families, and will have impact for many years on all of their confidence in the healthcare system,” Rubinstein tells PEOPLE in a statement. “We are happy to bring justice and closure to the victims in this case, but we know that the harm he did to the reputation of our local medical community will still take many years to repair.”
He says Lambros’ 22-year sentence is a combination of 44 months for each of the six counts he pleaded guilty to, and Lambros will be serving those sentences consecutively.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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