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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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Two of the women indecently
assaulted by disgraced New Plymouth GP Hiran Fernando believe there are other
victims yet to come forward and blame the Medical Council for his 20-year
spree of abuse. The Medical Council has admitted
it may have put women patients at risk by not suspending Fernando earlier. The Sunday Star-Times has spoken
to the two women, who wrote to the council in 1984 and 1989 outlining their
experiences of abuse by the doctor when they were 17 and 18. The council took
no action. It is also under fire for allowing
Fernando to continue practising for 18 months after police filed 37 charges
of sexual assault. The women's testimony was accepted
by a High Court jury last week which convicted Fernando of 26 counts of
indecently assaulting female patients between 1981 and 2002. He is to be
sentenced on November 15 and the council has ordered him to stop working. Medical Council chief executive
Philip Pigou told the Taranaki Daily News the council was distressed with Fernando's
"appalling offending". "It's more distressing for
the victims and the council apologises for the behaviour of Dr Fernando to
the victims," he said. "In a sentinel event of this
nature we would look at our processes to see did we do it well, poorly, or
should we have taken different actions." Pigou said that from June last
year Fernando was required to have a chaperone and not undertake intimate
examinations except in an emergency. But he conceded women patients who went
to Fernando after restrictions were put in place might have been unaware of
them because of the court's name suppression. Safer Centre spokeswoman Lorraine
Jans, a New Plymouth sexual abuse counsellor, said the Medical Council was
wrong in protecting Fernando and allowing him to continue to practise. Any other professional body
charged with keeping people safe would have suspended that person, she said.
One of Fernando's victims told the Star-Times it was ludicrous that he had
been allowed to continue working. "They let me down, and in
letting me down they let down who knows how many women? Who knows where it
will stop? I put a challenge to all women out there who were abused by him to
come forward, even if it's not to lay a formal complaint, so we can know how
big this is. I wouldn't be surprised if it was hundreds." Another victim aged 18 when she
was abused, said she knew of two women who had not come forward, as they did
not feel strong enough to go through a court case. The woman said she kept the abuse
to herself for five years, fearing no one would believe her, until she
finally told her female GP in 1989, who recommended she write to the Medical
Council. After several months of
correspondence with the council, she received a letter saying no action would
be taken. One of the reasons given was the historical nature of the
offending. "They said if I knew anyone
else who had been abused to get them to come forward and maybe they'd do
something about it. I was just gutted. I thought, `He's just going to keep on
doing this."' -- additional reporting by
Taranaki Daily News |
