UK doctor 'sexually assaulted patients and told a colleague to keep quiet'

London, Apr 19 : A UK doctor had sexually assaulted patients and told a colleague to keep quiet, a hearing was told.

Dr Adil Shareef, a general practitioner facing charges of sexual assaults against his patients and a colleague could be barred from practicing, reports the Daily Mail.

Shareef, 44, is accused of indecently touching one patient after she went to him with a urinary infection.

Another woman allegedly had her breast felt after she complained of a persistent cough and cold.

During an earlier court case a jury was told the GP also indecently touched a medical colleague during a bogus massage session before warning her: ‘Don’t tell anyone else or everyone will want it.‘

The General Medical Council (GMC) heard he groped the four patients and one nursing colleague over a five-year period while working as a GP in Epsom, Surrey.

Shareef was convicted of four counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault at Guildford Crown Court in July 2010.

He was jailed for 18 months and released earlier this month after serving half his sentence.

He has since requested leave to appeal his convictions claiming new evidence has come to light.

A High Court judge will rule if he has grounds to appeal later this month.

Shareef was suspended by the GMC following the convictions 2010 and he could now be struck off if the panel decide his ‘fitness to practise’ is impaired.

The court heard that he was visited by one woman, then aged 23, who went for a consultation in 2003 at the Old Cottage Hospital Surgery in Epsom after developing a urinary tract infection.

Jurors were told that the defendant instructed her to remove her trousers and gave her what she described as a wholly unnecessary examination.

Jurors were told the remaining incidents allegedly took place at the Fountain Medical Centre, in Ewell, where Shareef moved to in 2004.

They were said to have included one occasion in 2008 when the doctor allegedly touched a woman’s private parts on the pretext of putting ointment on some lesions she was suffering from.

The court heard that bosses of the medical practice logged the incident on Shareef’s record and agreed to install video equipment to monitor all his future medical examinations.

Shareef was arrested on 19 November 2008, leading to his conviction in 2010.