A woman who has accused a doctor of sexually assaulting her walked out of court as defence counsel was making final submissions yesterday. As the woman and her sister left, defence counsel Mr Martin Giblin warned the jury to consider the evidence of the case, and not "displays of petulance" shown by spectators in the court.
It was the 14th day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of a 35-year-old doctor who denies sexually assaulting two female patients at the Mater Hospital, on July 28th, 1997.
Mr Giblin was in the course of telling the jury that the evidence offered by the woman and her family was "riddled with inaccuracies and exaggeration". He said this was due to a degree of hysteria in the Mater Hospital on the night and not to deliberate lies on their part. Later, when the second alleged victim left the court, he again warned the jury to remember to base their decision solely on evidence presented to the court. The three women later returned to court.
Mr Giblin said the Mater Hospital was "throwing the accused to the wolves". He said that consultant anaesthetist in the Mater Dr Dermot Phelan could not be considered to be an independent witness because he had an "axe to grind" with the defendant. Mr Giblin said a civil action is being brought by the two women against the Mater Hospital.
Dr Phelan will have to answer questions about how the accused was trained and supervised. This may include questions about why a doctor assigned to supervise the accused did not even know who the accused was. The accused was also assigned a mentor, yet did not know who this person was.
Dr Phelan was deeply involved in the events. Mr Giblin said that on the night in question the accused made no attempt to disguise the fact he did not wear surgical gloves or wash his hands before he examined the two women. He had always said he had given one vaginal examination to each woman and his evidence on other details of what occurred was consistent.
After the examination of the first alleged victim, her sister saw him writing notes. This suggested normality and routine, and not sexual gratification on the part of the accused. Mr Giblin said there were inconsistencies in the number of times both women say they were given vaginal examinations.
In his closing statement, prosecution counsel Mr Paul McDermott said the examination experienced by the first alleged victim was a million miles from anything she expected to happen in a hospital. Her obvious upset afterwards was an indication of how awful the experience was for her. Mr McDermott said the accused had made an extraordinary verbal attack on the second alleged victim and had accused her of exaggerating her story so she could seek compensation payments.
The accused had blamed a great number of people for what happened, and his "trail of woe" began in Pakistan, where even his medical tutor was blamed for giving inadequate training. It was also a nonsense to say that latex gloves were not worn by doctors in Pakistan. Three Pakistani doctors had shown the court that this was not the case. Basic medical procedure was the same from Islamabad to Dublin, he added.
What was before the court was a tawdry case of sexual assaults on two young women in a vulnerable situation. Jury deliberation begins today.