A GP who groped a womans breasts after she visited him fearing she had suffered a heart attack has been jailed.
The victim visited a walk-in clinic at the Sparkhill Primary Care and Community Centre in Birmingham in May 2016 fearing she had shown symptoms, and was seen by Dr Rajeshkumar Mehta who had been working there for a short time on an ad hoc basis.
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The 64-year-old medic heard the woman could not identify the sensations in her body and had been suffering from anxiety.
Mehta took down some details, then asked her to lie down on the diagnostic couch.
She unbuttoned her blouse in anticipation of the examination but the GP pulled down her vest and bra, exposing her breasts and fondling them.
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The victim was frozen with shock, the court was told.
After she challenged Mehta he stopped what he was doing and moved away.
But it was obvious he had obtained sexual gratification from what he had done, the court heard.
Mehta then asked her questions about her personal life and sexual partners, making her feel uncomfortable.
The mother-of-two did not complain straight away but, after speaking to one of her daughters, went back to the surgery and reported what had happened to her.
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Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told Mehta: She looked to you for professionalism, care and concern – and you returned that request by abusing her.
This was a patient in a particularly vulnerable state, anxious, confused and frightened by her symptomatology and you utilised that, in my view, to carry out a sexual assault upon her without fearing at that time that she would be physically and mentally robust enough to defend herself and complain about you after the event.
The judge said she said she accepted that the doctor was of previous good character and had health difficulties, but he had shown no remorse and continued to deny the offence.
She also said the victims education had been disrupted and that family relationships had become strained.
He had planned to work as an ad hoc locum up to the age of 70. That opportunity has now gone.
He has lost entirely his reputation. He was an enormously respected individual enjoying a successful career.
That career is, of course, now in tatters, and he will inevitably be struck off.
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Scott Avill, defending, said Mehta had been in practice for nearly four decades and there had been no suggestion of any previous inappropriate behaviour.
The consequences of this conviction have been devastating for him and for his family, he said.
Dr Rajeshkumar Mehta was found guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court and sentenced to 15 months in jail.
He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.
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