A doctor accused of sexually assaulting two patients has claimed he was following "every word" of a medical textbook when he gave vaginal examinations to two women due to have their tonsils removed.
He said he relied on the textbook because he was "treated with contempt" when he asked a more senior doctor to show him how to examine a patient.
He said he also asked another female doctor for help but she told him she was too busy.
It was the eighth day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of the 35-year-old doctor who denies sexually assaulting two female patients at the Mater Hospital on July 28th, 1997. It was the accused man's first day in the witness box.
He told his defence counsel, Mr Martin Giblin SC, he began training as an anaesthetist in the Mater Hospital in the first week of May 1997.
He was elevated to the position of supernumerary in the anaesthesia department on July 6th or 7th, 1997. On the second week as a supernumerary, he began assisting in the operating theatre and was allowed to mix injections.
Asked about his training in preoperative examinations, he said he told a few doctors that he did not know how to do it. "They told me to follow the book."
He was advised by a senior doctor that a textbook known as Aikenhead and Smith was very good. He already had a copy which was given to him by a doctor friend in Pakistan.
On the day of the alleged assaults, he had already consulted the text. It said "mortality or morbidity" could occur unless all bodily systems of the patient were examined. That included finding out if the patient had any family illnesses or if she were pregnant.
Asked about previous experience, he said that before the date of the alleged assaults he had undertaken four pre-operative examinations on his own, on two male and two female patients.
He said he came from a middle-class family, and it was difficult to graduate in Pakistan because a student must pay a lot of money.
He said he came to Ireland to gain experience in anaesthesia and because his wife and daughter were living in Birmingham.
A Pakistani doctor, currently training in Dublin, told the court that he was trained to wear gloves for all procedures. He said that he considered this basic health training.
Cross-examined by Mr Giblin, he agreed that some clinics in remote areas of Pakistan had no running water or electricity. It would not surprise him if surgical gloves were not worn when examining patients in these parts of the country, he said.
The trial continues.