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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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A woman told the High Court at New
Plymouth yesterday that the doctor on trial for sex offending looked like a
naughty schoolboy during a consultation she had with him. The woman was giving evidence on
the eighth day of the trial and was one of the last three of the 12
complainants to be called in the case yesterday. She told Crown prosecutor Justin
Marinovich she went to the doctor in 1983 because she thought she was
pregnant and the doctor gave her an internal examination. The woman said that rather than a
medical examination, she believed what he did was sexual. "I knew that was not part of
any medical examination and I sat up. His pupils were dilated and he had a
funny smirking smile on his face, like he was getting off on it," she
said. However, the woman said his
expression changed when he saw her looking at him. "It changed from that of
excitement to a caught-out naughty schoolboy." She told Mr Marinovich she felt
confused because she had respected the doctor, but he was touching her in the
way her boyfriend at the time did. Defence counsel Harry Waalkens put
to the woman during cross-examination that part of the reason she believed
something was wrong was the look on the doctor's face, something she may have
misunderstood. The complainant said the doctor's
expression was excitement, and it was a look she would never forget. The doctor has denied the 37
charges that have been made against him by the 12 women dating from 1981 to
2002. An expression of lust and
"like he was watching porn" was how another complainant yesterday
described the doctor looking when he examined her breasts in the early 1980s.
She told Mr Marinovich that during
her consultation, the doctor told her to take her top and bra off because he
could usually tell if a woman was pregnant by looking at her breasts. "I don't remember anything
apart from the look on his face when he was looking at me." The woman, now 42, believed that
during the same consultation she asked the doctor to check a lump in her
groin that was worrying her and about her failure to orgasm during sex with
her husband. She said the consultation, which
involved an internal examination, left her feeling dirty and embarrassed and
she never returned to see the doctor again. She told her husband later that
day what had happened. During cross-examination, Mr
Waalkens questioned her memory of events and whether she went to see the
doctor on different occasions for her complaints. "You are not sure that they
all happened on one consultation," Mr Waalkens said. Her husband later gave evidence
and told Mr Waalkens that he recalled his wife being upset about something to
do with the doctor, but he could not remember the details. He continued to be a patient of
the accused doctor. "Could I suggest that if your
wife had told you that (the doctor) had been sexually inappropriate with your
wife and that he had sexually abused her, you would not have gone back to see
him again, would you. "Surely, in support for your
wife, that would be the last thing you would do," Mr Waalkens said. The Crown's case is expected to
conclude today, with the last two witnesses – the police officer in charge
Detective Sergeant Debra Gower and a medical expert – giving evidence. The case for the defence will open
on Monday. |
