Dudley doctor says sex attack claims are untrue

Dr Jaswant Rathore is also accused of pulling the woman’s clothing down to her knees as she lay on her front.

The GP, from Wall Heath, is accused of 18 sex attacks on patients in Dudley. He denies the charges.

Giving evidence at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, the 60-year-old insisted he was performing ‘manipulation therapy’ on the alleged victims to try to solve their back problems.

The jury heard evidence from a patient who alleged Rathore had touched her inappropriately and moved her hips, leaving her feeling ‘quite exposed’.

The doctor told the court: “I do not perform manipulation of the hips.”

When asked by his barrister Mr Alan Jenkins to respond to allegations about clothing, he said: “That is not true, sir. Clothing is moved to the middle part of the upper back. There are no intimate parts exposed.”

He said claims he moved his hands below the patient’s back were ‘untrue’.

Rathore, of Ploughmans Walk, has worked as a GP for nearly 30 years. He admitted he had not always kept records of whether patients had requested chaperones due to the ‘stresses’ of his job.

He said: “I accept note keeping is one of the first things to suffer when you are working unsafe hours.”

He added: “I have to accept again, along with many GPs, I didn’t always keep records of whether chaperones were accepted.

“More often than not the chaperones were declined rather than accepted but note keeping is poorly done in GP surgeries.”

Rathore also explained how he would offer manipulation therapy to patients and dismissed a suggestion made by another doctor earlier in the trial that he should have referred them to a physiotherapist.

He told the court: “It is not what we are trained to do as GPs.

“It is unreasonable for GPs to refer patients with acute lower back pain to hospital straight away unless it is severe.”

Prosecutors allege the doctor attacked eight women patients between November 2008 and March 2015. The trial continues.