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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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A girl wrote a letter of complaint
to the Medical Council just hours after she had a consultation with the New
Plymouth doctor on trial for sexual offending. Now 39, the woman was giving
evidence on the third day of a High Court jury trial in New Plymouth
yesterday. She is one of 12 complainants, all
former patients of the doctor, who allege he sexually assaulted them during
medical consultations between 1981 and 2002. He denies the 37 charges he
faces. The woman told the court she wrote
the letter as a 17-year-old after visiting the doctor in 1984 because she
thought she was pregnant. She alleges that during the consultation the doctor
examined her in a sexual way and pushed his erect penis against her. "I wrote it (the letter) that
night," the woman told defence lawyer Harry Waalkens, QC, during his
cross-examination yesterday. Mr Waalkens put to the woman that
while she wrote the letter, she left out a number of the details she now
alleges. He said she failed to tell the
council about a previous consultation with the doctor, during which she had a
breast examination that she said made her feel "yucky". "The truthful position is
that the first time you made a complaint about these matters was when you
were interviewed by police in April 2003, about 20 years later," Mr
Waalkens said. The woman told Mr Waalkens that
she did not tell the council about the breast examination because she thought
they would wonder why she went back to the doctor. He also questioned why she did not
tell the council that she believed the doctor had an erection while he
examined her. "I think because I was
embarrassed . . . and thought `did I do something wrong to make him get an
erection?'," the tearful woman said. "I suggest this penis
business is fanciful," Mr Waalkens said. A Medical Council investigation
was conducted, but no action was taken against the doctor. A second complainant, who took the
stand yesterday, told the jury she had seen the doctor four times as an
18-year-old for recurring thrush and a urinary tract infection. On each occasion, the doctor told
her to strip naked and climb on to the examination table, while he watched,
she said. Responding to questions from Crown
prosecutor Cherie Clarke, the woman said the doctor would roll her nipples
between his fingers and thumb for five to 10 minutes. "He asked me how
it felt. I said I did not feel anything." She said he asked her questions
about her sex life, if she enjoyed sex and what positions she and her partner
had sex in, but she didn't respond. She said on each visit the doctor
would also rub her genitals with his ungloved hand and push his erect penis
into the side of her body. The woman described seeing his
erection forcing against his trousers. The doctor asked her if she was
getting close to orgasm as he did this, she said. She said on the fourth visit to
the doctor he became more forceful and frustrated that she would not respond
to his questions. "He became quite, almost
angry and told me that I was not normal and that I was frigid. I was
shocked." Ms Clarke asked the woman what the
examinations felt like and she replied that if felt like the doctor was
attempting to masturbate her. No samples were taken during any
of the examinations, the woman said. "I felt stupid, I felt
humiliated and terribly ashamed. I knew what he had done was wrong, but I
just felt so powerless and doctors were so respected and I didn't think
anyone would believe me," the woman said when asked why she returned to
the doctor. The woman will be cross-examined
by the defence when the trial continues today. |
