The final stages have been reached in the trial of a doctor who denies sexually assaulting two female patients in the Mater Hospital in Dublin last year.
Evidence in the case concluded on the sixth day of the hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after the 35-year-old defendant's third day in the witness box.
The junior anaesthetist from Pakistan was employed on a supernumerary unpaid basis at the Mater. He has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the two women on July 28th, 1997. He criticised the medical and legal systems yesterday during his cross-examination. "I came from a foreign country to improve myself and I worked for nothing at great expense but you put me in custody for the last 11 months for doing my duty." The women told the trial he gave them vaginal examinations when they were in hospital to have their tonsils removed. There were also allegations that he felt their breasts and tried to kiss one of the women after telling her she was very beautiful. The defendant agreed he performed vaginal examinations but he was following instructions in what he said was a worldwide standard medical textbook. He quoted from the book which stated a "full physical examination" should be undertaken on a patient, even on bodily systems not directly relevant to the condition, and the findings recorded in case of "morbidity".
He rejected aspects of the patients' claims about the number of times he inserted his finger into their vaginas and denied he tried to kiss one of them. He agreed he had not washed his hands after examining the first woman and said he did not use surgical gloves because it was not the practice in Pakistan unless the patient provided them.
He said he typed up his own references about his medical experience in Pakistan, which were purportedly signed by professors affiliated to the University of Punjab. He said that was normal practice in Pakistan. The trial continues today.