Surgeon who sexually assaulted a medical student gets job back

A SURGEON convicted of sexually assaulting a student doctor has been deemed fit to return to work.

A tribunal made the decision after Muhammad Ishtiaque, 56, vowed to treat women with ‘dignity and respect’.

A jury convicted him in September 2018 of trying to force himself onto his victim while they were in hospital accommodation.

Before she managed to flee Ishtiaque told her: ‘You are wonderful, you are amazing.’

He was suspended from his profession by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester. But a review hearing has allowed him to return to unrestricted medical work after he insisted he had ‘fully reflected on his actions’.

The incident occurred in July 2017 when he was a locum at King’s Mill Hospital in Mansfield. Toward the end of a medical discussion Ishtiaque offered his hand to the woman, but he then pulled her toward him and held her against his body.

He twice tried to kiss her on the lips and instead kissed her neck as she turned her head away. She broke away, returned to her room and reported the incident.

Ishtiaque, of Luton, was sentenced to two months in jail, suspended for a year, and told by Nottingham Crown Court to sign the sex offenders register for five years. He appealed against his sentence and his name was taken off the register and he was instead told to a complete a community order.

Ishtiaque, who joined the NHS in 2009 after coming to Britain from Pakistan, said he had been on a three-day professional boundaries course since the incident. He said: ‘I have developed insight into my behaviour and the effect that any behaviour on my part on that evening would have had on the student doctor.

‘I have stayed positive and learned from this experience in terms of maintaining appropriate conduct as a doctor to the wider public so as to preserve the reputation of the profession.

‘I have inside me more than I

‘Kiss her on the lips’

could explain. I know that my conviction has an impact on the reputation and standing of the profession, and that it may shake public confidence in doctors generally. I am embarrassed and ashamed to think I should be the cause of such consequences.’

In clearing the doctor to work, tribunal chairman Ian Comfort said: ‘There is a very low risk of repetition given the remediation and insight Dr Ishtiaque has shown.

‘He demonstrated the importance of treating people with dignity and respect, and he explained how he will apply this learning in practice.

‘A reasonable member of the public would be satisfied that Dr Ishtiaque has insight into his actions and is unlikely to repeat them.’