GP jailed for sexual abuse of patients
A doctor jailed for stupefying and indecently assaulting male patients at a Hastings clinic has no chance of practising medicine again.
David Kang Huat Lim, who abused his position as a GP to drug and grope ‘‘fit young men’’ in his care, was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday.
The 42-year-old was found guilty in June of five charges of stupefying and five charges of indecent assault in relation to the four patients.
After a two-week trial, a Napier District Court jury acquitted him on three charges of indecent assault.
A GP with 800 enrolled patients at The Doctors clinic in Hastings, Lim dosed the men up on a strong sedative, Midazolam, and performed indecencies on them while they were in a state of ‘‘conscious sedation’’.
Sentencing Lim, Judge Geoff Rea said he had deliberately targeted ‘‘fit young men’’ who were defenceless against his abuse once they were drugged.
Disabling the victims by stupefying them through the illegitimate use of a drug he had access to through his role as a doctor was a ‘‘major factor’’ in the case, the judge said.
‘‘There was a certain boldness about your offending,’’ he told Lim.
Crown prosecutor Steve Manning told Judge Rea that Lim’s offending was a unique combination of factors: indecent assault, stupefying and breach of trust.
‘‘Everyone trusts a doctor. It’s this trust that this defendant manipulated and took advantage of.’’
Defence lawyer Harry Waalkens, QC, said practising medicine had been his client’s ‘‘whole life’’ and he was now left without a career and little in the way of assets despite being a doctor for more than 14 years.
Being struck off the medical register was an ‘‘inevitable outcome’’, Waalken said.
Lim’s offending against the four men occurred between January and September 2014. All came into his clinic with various minor ailments.
His abuse came to light when an 18-year-old college student Lim was treating for a dislocated finger realised something inappropriate was happening and yelled out. A nurse and the teenager’s mother rushed in to find Lim standing beside the teen, whose trousers had been removed. Three other victims were later identified.
Lim stopped working at The Doctors when the allegations surfaced in late 2014, but worked as a medical officer covering shifts at rest homes and prisons.
The Medical Council suspended Lim from practising in June 2015, but he successfully appealed and was allowed to continue practising under strict conditions until February last year, when he was suspended again. He remains suspended.
Lim was sentenced to five years’ jail on each of the indecency charges and three years for each stupefying charge, with all the sentences to be served concurrently.