A GP from Coventry has been jailed after he groped a woman’s breasts after she visited a Birmingham walk-in surgery, fearing she was suffering from a heart attack.
Dr Rajeshkumar Mehta, 64, of Dale Meadow Close, Coventry, had also asked the victim intimate questions.
Mehta had previously been found guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, was sentenced to 15 months in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
The court heard that the doctor had been working for a short time at Sparkhill Primary Care and Community Centre on an ad hoc basis.
The woman went to the walk-in centre complaining of sensations to her body which she could not identify in May 2016.
She was suffering from anxiety and was concerned she might be experiencing the early stages of a heart attack.
Mehta her to lie down on the diagnostic couch and she unbuttoned her blouse in anticipation of the examination but the GP pulled down her vest and bra.
The victim was “frozen with shock”, the court was told.
After she challenged Mehta he stopped what he was doing and moved away.
Mehta then asked her questions about her personal life and sexual partners, making her feel uncomfortable.
The mother-of-two did not complain straight away but went back to the surgery and reported what had happened to her.
Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told Mehta: “She looked to you for professionalism, care and concern – and you returned that request by abusing her.
“This was a patient in a particularly vulnerable state, anxious, confused and frightened by her symptomatology and you utilised that, in my view, to carry out a sexual assault upon her without fearing at that time that she would be physically and mentally robust enough to defend herself and complain about you after the event.”
The judge said she said she accepted that the doctor was of previous good character and had health difficulties, but he had shown no remorse and continued to deny the offence
She also said the victim’s education had been disrupted and that family relationships had become strained.
Scott Avill, defending, said Mehta had been in practice for nearly four decades and there had been no suggestion of any previous inappropriate behaviour.
“The consequences of this conviction have been devastating for him and for his family,” he said.
“He had planned to work as an ad hoc locum up to the age of 70. That opportunity has now gone.
“He has lost entirely his reputation. He was an enormously respected individual enjoying a successful career.
“That career is, of course, now in tatters, and he will inevitably be struck off.”
