Doctor cleared of molestation charge
Suspect did not violate medical conduct and conducted treatment professionally, witness says
Dubai: A doctor has been cleared of molesting a Singaporean woman during a laser treatment session after his lawyer said that he worked in accordance to the profession's code of conduct.
The Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday acquitted the 64-year-old British doctor of groping and molesting the 37-year-old woman during the laser treatment session at his private clinic.
Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad also rejected the woman's civil compensation claim.
"My client abided with the medical code of ethics and behaved decently when he treated the claimant. He operated on her within the acceptable parameters of decency…he didn't molest her as she claimed," advocate Samir Jaafar said.
The doctor pleaded not guilty and denied molesting the woman and strongly rejected any behavioural misconduct towards her.
Groping
Prosecutors quoted the woman alleging that the doctor groped her breast in what she described as "touching her in an unneeded manner during a laser session".
In his defence argument, Jaafar countered the woman's claims and said that his client did not touch her in an inappropriate manner.
The lawyer further presented to court a defence witness, a laser treatment expert, who confirmed to the judge "the suspect did not violate the medical code of conduct and that he operated the laser treatment within the profession's ethics".
"I had my upper and lower body parts covered with a cloth. He unjustly removed the cloth off my breast and touched me. When he realised that I was shocked at his behaviour, he pointed the laser gun to my breast pretending that what he did was part of the treatment," claimed the woman in her statement.
"I am not guilty," argued the doctor when he refuted his charges in court.
The Public Prosecution charged the suspect, N.F., with molesting the woman, P.R., when he took advantage of the fact that she was alone with him in the laser treatment room.
"I left the clinic in a state of shock. Due to the shock, I forgot my car's colour and mistakenly tried to open another one," P.R., a housewife, testified.
A Romanian laser specialist purported in her testimony: "A Lebanese woman once complained to me that the defendant molested her number of times. She cries every time she comes to me for treatment and remembers her alleged molestation incidents."
Records show the Romanian witness saying that health ministry officials promised the Lebanese woman that the doctor's licence would be revoked, but nothing happened.
The verdict is still subject to appeal within 15 days.
