Two women told a jury yesterday that a doctor carried out vaginal examinations on them in the Mater Hospital as they were being prepared to have their tonsils removed.
The women also claimed he asked about their menstrual cycles. They said they had not been sure what the pre-surgery procedures were and they initially thought internal examination was part of the normal routine.
The Pakistani doctor aged 35 has pleaded not guilty in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexually assaulting the women last July 28th when they were aged 18 and 23.
One woman told Mr Tom O'Connell, prosecuting, that she had been having problems with her tonsils and was referred to the Mater.
On July 28th last year she was summoned to the hospital and was to have the operation the next day. Members of her family accompanied her. She was admitted to a ward and given a curtained cubicle. A nurse checked her blood pressure and temperature.
Later, the accused doctor, an anaesthetist, came and pulled the curtain closed. He asked her about her menstrual cycle, whether she was on the pill and about her family's medical history. He also asked her if she smoked, was asthmatic, and how much she drank.
When she told him she was not on the pill he looked at her in a certain way and she got a "vibe" from him. She told him she had a boyfriend. "He told me he was in the country for about two weeks and he hadn't got a steady girlfriend," she said.
She said he motioned to her to lie on the bed and to open the button of her trousers. He started pressing around her stomach and when he touched her side she jumped because it was tender from an old complaint.
"His hands moved slowly down the inside of my legs, my thighs, my groin area. Next thing before I knew it he had inserted his finger inside my vagina. He did not have any gloves on," she told Mr O'Connell.
She went on to claim he touched her stomach again before putting his finger back inside her and moving it about.
The woman said it alarmed her as she knew it was not right. She pulled her legs together and he took his hand away. "I just kinda looked at him," she said.
He touched her stomach again and then moved up to the head of the bed, said something and kissed her on the lips. "I put up my hands and said no," she said.
She claimed that he then pulled up her cardigan and used a stethoscope on her stomach. She could feel him touch the nipple of one of her breasts and he said: "You are a beautiful lady".
The woman said she was not sure of the exact details of the incident. "Its a bit fuzzy to me because at some stage I just switched off," she said. She said she was with him for about 30 minutes.
Afterwards when she left the cubicle her sister asked her what was wrong and she made allegations against the accused. She later spoke to two nurses and one said: "No, that should not have happened".
She said she was very upset and was crying. While in a smoking room she met the second alleged victim who told her the doctor had done the same thing to her.
Cross-examined by Mr Barry White SC (with Mr Cormac Quinn), defending, the woman agreed she had a solicitor in court to keep a "watching brief" for a civil action.
She told Mr White she did not know what the doctor's job was. When she had said she was not on the pill, he had looked at her in a "funny way".
Mr White suggested this look might have been out of amazement she was not on the pill. The woman agreed she did not ask the doctor if it was appropriate information to seek. "I said I have a steady boyfriend because I was getting a strange vibe from him," she said.
She did not ask for a nurse because at that stage nothing had happened and she did not want to overreact. "I did not fully know if it was the correct procedure or not. When you go to the doctor, you trust the doctor," she said.
When asked why she did not call her sister who was outside or call for a nurse, she replied: "Because there was a lot of emotions going through me at once".
Mr White said his client would give evidence that he put his finger in her on one occasion only. He would say he had been in the country a few months and that part of his job was chatting to put a patient at ease.
The doctor would say he never kissed her, said she was beautiful, or said she had a "beautiful nipple". He had said the people of Ireland were beautiful in answer to a question she put, said Mr White.
The second woman told the court she had first been scheduled to have the tonsils operation in September 1996 but it was cancelled because she was on the pill. She said she had not been told she had to be off it for six weeks before the operation.
In November 1996 the operation was again cancelled because she had flu. On July 28th last she returned for the operation and the accused inserted his finger in her vagina on two occasions. It really hurt her the second time and he also touched her breasts, she claimed.
Opening the case, Mr O'Connell told Judge Frank O'Donnell and the jury that the anaesthetist's role was to get a clinical history so as to decide what type of anaesthetic should be used.
The doctor did not have a nurse with him and did not use gloves when he carried out the vaginal examinations. A consultant would say there was no conceivable reason for this examination on patients who were to have tonsillectomies and even if there was a need for it, gloves should always be used.
When challenged about this point by Mater Hospital staff after complaints were lodged that night, the doctor replied that gloves were never used in Pakistan. The hearing continues.