The doctor who denies sexually assaulting two female tonsilitis patients at the Mater Hospital in Dublin has agreed in evidence he drafted medical references which he said were then signed by professors. One of the references indicated his experience included assistance "in planning the undergraduate teaching programme and operative work" at the Services Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, from July 1993 to January 1994.
Cross-examined yesterday by Mr Tom O'Connell, prosecuting, the 35-year-old defendant agreed that was false, but claimed Prof Dr Masood Ahmad Butt would not have signed the reference without it being included.
The defendant, a native of Pakistan, told Judge Frank O'Donnell and the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he had not used the references to get into the Mater Hospital or with the Irish Medical Council and was not asked for them. He said even postgraduate training in "Third World" places like Pakistan was not accepted here.
He could not comment on the suggestion by Mr O'Connell that the purported signature by Prof Ahmer Bokhari on two documents seemed slightly different.
He agreed several paragraphs in various references were identical and said he had composed some of the documents from the specimens provided by Prof Masood, Prof Bokhari and Prof Khalil-ur-Rehman. He typed the references himself and they signed.
"They just asked what you wanted included in the reference, read it after you typed it and then signed. These are just routine in Pakistan," he said.
It was the fifth day of his trial in which he has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two female patients in the Mater on July 28th, 1997.
He denied Mr O'Connell's assertion he had inserted his finger in the women's vaginas and fondled their breasts for his sexual gratification and that his evidence consisted of "blatant lies". He carried out vaginal examinations on both women because a medical textbook which he said was a standard text advised that a full physical examination should always be carried out even on bodily systems not directly relevant to the condition being treated.
He agreed with Mr O'Connell he had not washed his hands between his examinations of the two women and that if he fully followed the textbook advice on a full physical examination he should also have carried out rectal examinations.
Asked by Mr Barry White SC (with Mr Cormac Quinn) defending, why no reference to the internal examinations he carried out was made in his notes, he replied a senior staff member had told him only to note down positive findings in his reports.
The defendant said he at first suspected the second female patient he examined might be in the early stages of pregnancy when she winced after he pressed her lower abdomen. He later ruled that out but was concerned in case of a pregnancy outside the womb or about inflammation in the genital area.
He said that after he had been questioned by gardai about the first complaint, he told the medical disciplinary committee and his landlord he was planning to visit England to see his daughter and then was going to return. He sought a re-entry visa to facilitate him working here again.
Asked by Mr White why he told gardai he was going to Sligo when he had a ticket for travelling to Birmingham, the defendant said he planned to leave his belongings with a friend in Sligo and to look for work there when he came back from England.
The defendant told Mr O'Connell facilities were so scarce in Pakistan patients were asked even to provide their own surgical gloves.
The trial continues today.
