A Brisbane nurse already facing two rape charges from an arrest a year ago is now accused of a third, after a Queensland court heard this week that a woman who complained about him has since died. Jeremy David Pearce, 42, a former nurse at Greenslopes Private Hospital, faced a committal hearing on charges that he raped three women in their 80s while working shifts at the Ramsay Health Care-owned hospital between 2020 and 2024.
Police arrested Pearce on Nov. 5, 2025, and initially charged him with two counts of rape tied to incidents in 2020 and 2024. Early reporting on the arrest, drawn from a Queensland Police statement, described two complainants, both women in their 80s. The Brisbane court heard this week that a third woman has also come forward as a complainant. According to ABC News Australia’s reporting from the hearing, one of the three complainants has since died — it is not alleged that her death is connected to the assault she reported.
A 2020 complaint the hospital says it already investigated
The case raises an uncomfortable question for Greenslopes Private Hospital: could this have been caught sooner? Pearce’s defense told the court that the hospital investigated a complaint against him in 2020 — the same year the earliest alleged assault is said to have happened — and that the matter was found unsubstantiated at the time. Ramsay Health Care, which owns the hospital, says Pearce was stood down from his position in December 2025, after his arrest, and has not returned to work since.
Elderly patients are often the least able to be believed on their own, which is exactly why an internal review that clears a staff member isn’t the end of the story if a pattern is alleged to continue for years afterward. None of these allegations have been proven, and Pearce is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as anyone else who hasn’t been convicted. But if you’re the nurse on shift who gets an uneasy feeling about a colleague and a vulnerable patient, this case is a reminder that one internal finding, years earlier, isn’t a reason to stop watching.
Colleagues cross-examined, hearing adjourned to January
At this week’s hearing, several of Pearce’s former colleagues were called and cross-examined about what they knew or observed around the time of the alleged offending. The committal hearing — where a magistrate decides whether there’s enough evidence for the case to proceed to a higher court — was adjourned and is due to resume in January. Queensland Police say their investigation remains open.
What happens next
Pearce remains on bail. No trial date has been set; that decision follows the committal hearing, assuming a magistrate finds enough evidence to commit the case for trial. Queensland’s courts don’t release committal rulings on a fixed schedule, so it may be weeks or months before there’s a public answer on whether this goes to trial.
Neither Greenslopes Private Hospital nor Ramsay Health Care has said publicly whether the 2020 review of the complaint against Pearce involved outside investigators or was handled entirely in-house, and neither has responded to the specific allegations raised at this week’s hearing beyond confirming, after his arrest, that he was stood down.