Indian doctor guilty of sexual assault on patients in UK

LONDON: Manish Natverlal Shah, a general practitioner in east London, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting dozens of female patients by conducting unnecessary and intrusive medical examinations over a fiveyear period. He faces jail sentence on February 7.

Shah, 50, was found guilty at the high court of nine counts of sexual assault and 16 counts of sexual assault by penetration, relating to eight women, after a six-week trial. He was also found guilty of offences of sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by touching in relation to 17 other women at an earlier trial which concluded in December 2018. Shah, who gained medical qualifications from the University of London in 1993, committed the offences between 2009 and 2013 and the charges across the two trials relate to a total of more than 20 female victims, aged in their 20s and 30s, Scotland Yard said on Tuesday.

Shah recommended that the patients have regular breast and vaginal examinations, when there was no clinical need. He highlighted the urgency of check-ups for cervical cancer, breast cancer and other illnesses by talking about celebrities who suffered similar conditions.

The court was told that Shah was “over familiar” with some of his female patients, and made inappropriate comments as well as making physical contact and hugging and kissing them. Shah was first arrested in September 2013 in relation to the initial four allegations. Richard Mcdonagh of Scotland Yard said: “He was a long-serving doctor who was well-known in the community”.

“They were unaware that Shah was carrying out unnecessary, invasive examinations on female patients for his own sexual gratification,” he said.