Pakistani doctor groped nurse then blamed ‘different cultural norms’

A PAKISTANI doctor blamed ‘different cultural norms’ after groping a student nurse at a hospital, a medical tribunal was told yesterday.

Dr Imran Qureshi, 44, put his hand on the 21-year-old’s chest and told her she was ‘beautiful’ and that he wanted an affair.

Despite the horrified nurse calling him ‘a disgrace’, the married fatherof-two then hugged her and grabbed her breast, the hearing was told.

Qureshi later admitted a ‘misjudgment’ – but blamed his behaviour on ‘cultural norms being different’ in the UK and Pakistan, which made him believe the Muslim nurse was ‘sexually available’ because she had previous boyfriends.

Unknown to him, she was recording the conversation on her phone.

He was convicted of sexual assault and is now fighting to save his career.

Qureshi trained in Peshawar before working as a locum at Trafford General Hospital – regarded as the birthplace of the NHS – in Davyhulme, Manchester.

The encounter with the student nurse – referred to as Miss A – took place on June 3, 2015.

Miss A said Qureshi seemed ‘excited to see her and well within her personal space’.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester was told she asked the doctor to retrieve some patient notes to which he replied: ‘I don’t want to get it yet, I want to spend some time with you.’

Rebecca Vanstone, counsel for the General Medical Council, said: ‘He told Miss A she was beautiful and asked whether she had a boyfriend.

‘He then said he was not happy in his marriage and wanted an affair.’

Shortly afterwards, the hearing was told, she was in the ward kitchen No remorse: Dr Imran Qureshi when Qureshi entered and shut the door behind him.

‘He asked whether she had a thyroid problem before feeling her neck,’ Miss Vanstone said.

‘She was backed into the corner when [he] touched her chest at the top where her breasts start ... She said he put his fingers there for a

‘He thought she was available’

few seconds before she pushed them away.’

Shocked, the trainee nurse held her hand in front of him to move him away and told him he was ‘a disgrace’, Miss Vanstone added.

‘He asked for a hug and she refused but he did it anyway. Then he grabbed her right breast for a few

seconds.’ She said Qureshi ‘ was laughing and trying to make light of the situation’ but then ‘ became aggressive and said that friends do what he was trying to do’.

The nurse informed her mentor, who said she was ‘shaken up and distraught’. She then reported Qureshi to police.

In June last year he was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 20 days’ rehabilitation activity at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, after a jury convicted him of sexual assault.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offender register for five years.

Qureshi was later refused leave to appeal his conviction and is currently suspended from practising.

Miss A provided the tribunal with a victim statement where she told of the effect the incident had on her.

‘ She feels that the incident impacted her reputation, she is a young unmarried Muslim woman,’ Miss Vanstone told the hearing.

Qureshi continues to deny his conduct amounted to sexual assault and had shown no remorse, she said.

‘He did say that he saw Miss A being sexually available because she had previous boyfriends,’ she added.

‘He described the incident being a misjudgment by him and says the culture norms are different in the UK from Pakistan where he is from.

‘He mistakenly formed the impression Miss A was romantically interested in him.’

She accused him of seeking to ‘diminish his actions and pass it off as an error of judgment’.

Apart from completing a course on professional boundaries and working with the probation service there was ‘little else to show how he could have addressed his behaviour’, she added.

‘He still fails to accept his conduct was a sexual assault.’

Qureshi admits the allegations but is seeking to avoid being struck off.

The hearing continues.