Jailed for life, GP who used ‘Angelina excuse’ to carry out 90 sex attacks
A GP who told patients about Angelina Jolie’s mastectomy and Jade Goody’s cancer to justify unnecessary breast examinations has been handed three life sentences for 90 sex attacks.
As well as citing celebrity cases, Manish Shah deployed a mixture of ‘flattery and fear’ against his patients, a court heard.
Yesterday 15 of his 24 victims watched from the Old Bailey’s public gallery as he was sentenced.
Judge Anne Molyneux QC ordered him to serve a minimum term of 15 years. Quoting one of his victims, the judge said: ‘You made up stories which got into heads and caused panic. You were a master of deception and you abused your position of power. This was a horrible abuse of trust and caused incalculable harm. The details show a pattern of behaviour over five years.
‘Your behaviour was not only sex ual but was driven by your desire to control and on occasions humiliate women.’
Shah, 50, a married father-of-one who practised at the Mawney Medical Centre in Romford, east London, justified the intimate examinations by claiming he was practising ‘defensive medicine’ on the female patients, aged between 15 and 39.
After a six-week trial which finished in December, he was found guilty of 25 sexual offences against six victims between 2009 and 2013. At a trial in 2018, Shah was convicted of offences relating to 18 other women, bringing the total number of offences to 90 relating to 24 women.
Kate Bex QC, prosecuting, told jurors that Shah played on the women’s fear of cancer to consent to examinations, but without being properly informed.
Some victims were particularly vulnerable because of their young age or because of a family history of the Miss Bex said: ‘Fear is an incredible motivator and few health concerns are scarier than cancer. Dr Shah exploited that and used it for his own personal gratification.’
Shah brought up the news story about Hollywood star Miss Jolie having a preventive mastectomy as he asked a woman if she would like him to examine her breasts.
He also mentioned Goody, the former Big Brother contestant who died from cervical cancer, to another woman, saying an examination was in her best interests.
Miss Bex told jurors that one theme of the case was the defendant’s ‘sexualised’ behaviour. He gave patients hugs and kisses, singling some out as ‘special’ and his ‘star’, and would not always wear gloves. He left one patient naked on an examination table.
The youngest victim described being left ‘anxious, fearful and shaking’ at the prospect of visiting the doctor after being abused by Shah.
The woman – aged 15 at the time – said during Shah’s 2018 trial that the ordeal left her feeling differently about men and worried about being seen as a ‘sex object’.
During Shah’s first trial, Rosita Cottage QC, prosecuting, said his surgery received a warning in July 2011 that it was carrying out too many underage smear tests – ‘doubtless by Mr Shah’.
In mitigation in the second trial, Zoe Johnson QC said: ‘Manish Shah will never again be able to practise medicine. The opportunity to offend and the ability to offend only arose because of Manish Shah’s profession. There is not one centile of information to suggest he would offend within the community. Stripped of that profession he is a rather weak man.
‘It goes without saying that all of these women feel grossly abused, humiliated, and that the trust that they placed in Manish Shah has been so dreadfully exploited. He deeply regrets hurting them.’
Shah, who graduated from the University of London in 1993, was arrested in 2013 and suspended pending the outcome of criminal proceedings. He is now set to be struck off the General Medical Council’s register.
Outside court, Detective Superintendent Tara McGovern, of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘He has caused significant harm to these women and has betrayed the trust they placed in him as their doctor. It’s been a long process – we’ve spoken to 130 women, we’ve taken dozens of statements and so we thank the victims for their patience.’
‘A master of deception’