PRIVATE PRACTICE
Court told of Corio doctor’s indecent act on patient
A CORIO doctor allegedly touched a 25-year-old woman “sexually” during a routine breast examination, a court has heard.
Akm Junaid Tanveer, 51, faced the first day of a Geelong County Court trial yesterday charged with the indecent assault of a young female patient in April 2015.
During opening arguments Crown Prosecutor Patrick Bourke said the prosecution would allege Dr Tanveer “indecently assaulted the young lady and he did so using the guise of performing a medical exam — a breast exam”.
He told the jury his client had attended the First Point Medical Centre in Corio because she had been experiencing pain in her left breast.
“She’ll tell you that she was asked by the doctor to undress from the waist up and she did so from behind the curtain where the examination table was located,” he said.
He said Dr Tanveer began the examination with his client lying down on the table but after a while he asked the woman to “kneel” on the examination table.
“She hadn’t done that before and she felt concerned about that,” Mr Bourke said.
“She’ll say the accused then guided her to where she’s leaning forward with her hands on the table as well.”
Mr Bourke said Dr Tanveer was standing next to her when he “leant forward from his standing position and with both hands touched both breasts in an action she describes as running his hands down both breasts to her nipples.”
“The accused asked her if she was in relationship. Had she had sex in this relationship? And when was the last she had had sex in that relationship?”
Mr Bourke said it was when Dr Tanveer had the 25-yearold on her hands and knees that he took “advantage of his situation of being a medical examiner”.
He said the prosecution would argue it was “far removed from the normal practice of a medical practitioner” and had no medical value.
Lawyer for Dr Tanveer, Sarah Keating, said her client had been a doctor for more than 20 years and had not been the subject of a single medical complaint.
Ms Keating said her client was considered of good character and denied that any part of the examination was conducted in a way that was not “a medical matter”.
“An essential issue in dispute will be her (the patient’s) credibility and reliability,” she told the jury.
The trial before Judge Felicity Hampel will continue today with evidence expected from other medical practitioners.