Pervert GP who took 19,000 secret shots of women patients jailed
More dabs to be taken in street
A GP who secretly took more than 19,000 photographs and videos of female patients was yesterday jailed for 14 months.
Dr Thair Altaii, 55, kept the images that were “in the surgery environment”, with some showing women “in various states of undress”, a court was told.
The married father-of-three was caught out when a patient noticed two propped up mobile phones during an appointment and contacted police.
He claimed that he had taken the images for his own assessment and training purposes.
Officers found the material when they seized the devices and a home computer.
Altaii, who moved to Britain from Iraq in 1998, was suspended from his practice in Sunderland when the claims came to light.
He was convicted by a Newcastle Crown Court jury of three counts of voyeurism between 2008 and 2014 in relation to more than 300 pictures taken of two female patients.
Judge Edward Bindloss said that the material had been taken “secretly and surreptitiously” and that planning had been involved in the setting up of the phones.
In victim impact statements one of the two women said: “My self-esteem is at an all-time low and I am not the person that I used to be.
“In the one place you think you should feel safe, I have suffered this violation at the hands of the person I most trust with my personal problems. I have never been a confident person and I do all I can to avoid being photographed or videoed by anybody, even my own family. It makes me feel physically sick to think what the images were used for.”
The other victim “shuddered to think” about the purpose of the images. She had become “extremely distressed” as she learnt of the amount of material that the doctor had stored.
In her statement, she said: “You should be able to trust your doctor with private matters as they are the people who make life-changing decisions on your behalf. I cannot express how broken I feel because of the actions of Dr Altaii.”
Jamie Hill, defending, told how Altaii, of Whitburn, South Tyneside, will face a General Medical Council disciplinary hearing later this year.
Mr Hill said that Altaii and his family, including a wife and three daughters, have “suffered the most public of humiliations”.
He added there was “no evidence that anybody else had any access to these images”. BRITAIN’S biggest police force has developed software to boost the number of suspects who can have fingerprints taken on the street.
London’s Metropolitan Police plans to roll out 600 new devices which can record prints in less than a minute without the need to go to a station.
The scanners plug into smartphones and then connect to databases to let officers check identities, immigration status or previous offences.
The system, known as INK for Identity Not Known, was developed as part of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick’s determination to make the best use of technology to fight crime.
The force already has 100 devices but the use of less expensive kit has saved £200,000 a year, allowing the number available to be increased.
Up to 20 other forces are expected to be using similar technology soon.
Commissioner Dick said it would “drive effectiveness and efficiency”.
But civil liberties group Big Brother Watch called it “the modern equivalent of being asked to show your papers”.