12 years for ‘arrogant’ GP in sex attacks on patients
A FAMILY doctor who displayed “breathtaking arrogance” as he sexually assaulting four young women patients in his surgery was yesterday jailed for 12 years.
Jaswant Rathore, 60, groped the victims, who went to him for treatment for bad backs and injuries, after persuading them to take part in “manual manipulation therapies”.
He was found guilty of 10 charges of sexual assault between 2008 and 2015.
Trust
The GP denied touching eight women inappropriately between late 2008 and summer of 2015.
But after a seven week trial, jurors found him guilty of attacking four young women, while acquitting him of eight assaults on a further four patients.
Judge Michael Challinor told Rathore at Wolverhampton Crown Court that the married father-of-five’s professional and personal life was a “complete shipwreck” after his conviction for sexual assaults.
The judge said: “Many witnesses in the trial spoke highly of your professionalism, diligence, expertise and amiability.
“These qualities made you, for many of 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 judge added: “Some of your behaviour demonstrated a breathtaking degree of arrogance – no doubt hoping your standing in the medical community would enable you to talk your way out of difficulty.”
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, who practised in the Dudley area.
As well as being instructed to register as a sex offender for life, Rathore, of Wall Heath, near Dudley, was made the subject of a 15-year sexual harm prevention order.