GP jailed for 12 years for patient sex assaults
Doctor who performed ‘massages’ abused position of trust
ADOCTOR who committed sex offences against four women patients has been jailed for 12 years.
Jaswant Rathore was convicted of ten offences at Wolverhampton Crown Court after a seven-week trial which heard he conducted unnecessary massage “treatment” to satisfy his sexual desires.
The 60-year-old general practitioner, who was the primary care lead for the Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group, had denied touching eight women inappropriately on different occasions between late 2008 and the summer of 2015.
But Rathore was convicted of eight charges of sexual assault and two counts of assault by penetration. He was cleared of eight other counts relating to four patients.
Jurors were told Rathore stroked the side of the breasts of one victim.
Jailing Rathore, Judge Michael Challinor accepted that the married father-of-five’s professional and personal life was a “complete shipwreck” after his conviction.
The judge said: “Many witnesses in the trial spoke highly of your professionalism, diligence, expertise and amiability.
“These qualities made you, for many of the your patients, the ‘go-to’ doctor in the area.
“You used your standing within the community as a cloak behind which you could carry out sexual assaults on your patients for your personal gratification.
“By your actions you violated the faith they had in you to carry out legitimate medical procedures.”
The offences, some involving supposed “massage” of patients, were described by the judge as a shocking breach of trust.
“That trust is eroded by people like you,” the judge told Rathore.
As well as being instructed to register as a sex offender for life, Rathore, of Wall Heath, Kingswinford, was made the subject of a 15-year sexual harm prevention order.
The court was told the GP, of Ploughmans Walk, Wall Heath, was initially arrested in relation to three complainants but five more contacted police after seeing reports in the press.
Ian Pinkney, Senior Crown Prosecutor with West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service’s Complex Casework Unit, welcomed the 12-year sentence.
He said: “Dr Jaswant Rathore abused his position of trust to carry out a series of sexual assaults against a number of his female patients. He preyed on women who contacted him for medical assistance, but rather than offer them help, he assaulted them for his own sexual gratification.
“The defendant did not have the relevant skills, techniques and training to perform the therapy which he was offering, nor did he provide the necessary safeguards to the victims when he conducted the manipulations. ”
The prosecution did not accept that Rathore even had “the appropriate training” to carry out the massage procedures.
The Indian-born doctor, who came to Britain aged three with his family, qualified as a GP in 1985 after studying medicine at the University of Manchester.
He also worked as a house officer in the spinal surgery section at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham in the 1980s.