Girl, 9, was ‘one of 25 patients molested by GP’

An ‘ arrogant’ GP molested female patients – including a girl of nine – over a 24-year period, a court heard yesterday.

Alan Tutin, 70, continued to grope victims after being investigated and cleared of other assaults, it is alleged.

Most of the sexual assaults were said to have been carried out during medical examinations, many of which were ‘entirely unnecessary’.

The married father of four groped 25 women in a ‘Benny Hill’ fashion for his own sexual gratification, the Old Bailey was told. He is also accused of assaulting a midwife and a junior doctor.

Tutin is alleged to have preyed on patients between 1980 and 2004 at the Merrow Park Practice in Guildford, Surrey, which he ran with his wife Angela.

Sally O’neill QC, prosecuting, said: ‘The sexual assaults were typically committed under the guise of breast examinations or vaginal examinations, some of which were entirely unnecessary and were carried out for his sexual gratification and some of which may have been justified but were carried out in a totally inappropriate way.’

Tutin squeezed the breasts of patients like he was touching ‘a couple of melons’ and assaulted women who consulted him for conditions including a foot wart and a blood pressure check, Miss O’neill said. He told one Accused: Tutin yesterday student she would have to undergo a breast examination if she wanted a medical certificate for a trip to France.

Tutin, who now lives near Tonbridge, Kent, is also accused of molesting a junior doctor who stayed at his house in 1989 when she was on call.

After his heavily pregnant wife went to bed, he ordered the young woman to take her clothes off, Miss O’neill said.

Tutin sat next to her, put his arm around her, tried to unbutton her blouse and attempted to kiss her.

When she froze, he told her: ‘OK, I won’t touch you but go and stand over there and take all your clothes off.’

The junior doctor contacted the sub-dean the next day to request her training be carried out at a different surgery.

Miss O’neill told the jury: ‘If he was prepared to behave like this in his own home with his wife upstairs, it may cast considerable light on his willingness to behave as so many said that he did in his own consulting room.’

‘He may have felt himself to be untouchable and unchallengeable at the time because of his position both in the practice and in society.’

On another occasion Tutin is said to have assaulted a midwife at his practice, telling her to ‘get her kit off’.

He grabbed her breasts and thrust his hand down her underpants, the court heard.

The victim told two colleagues afterwards, but because she was still employed at the practice she did not complain until her retirement years later.

In 1999, Tutin was cleared of two allegations of sexual abuse and he continued to practice until his retirement in 2004.

A police investigation was reopened in 2013 and detectives sent a letter to former patients, which led to more than 100 women coming forward.

Tutin denies 27 charges of indecent assault and one of assault. Louise Sweet QC, defending, said Tutin had devoted his life to medicine and found being a GP rewarding.

‘All that was to change dramatically in 1999 when sexual allegations, for which he has been wholly exonerated, were levied at his door,’ she said.

‘They led to the first explosion of adverse press and, we say, poison from which he has never been able to recover.’

The trial continues.