Victims face disgraced doctor

Canterbury - 18 February 2002;Used with kind permission from BBC News Online

Three victims of disgraced doctor Clifford Ayling have faced him in court in their bid for compensation. Ayling is currently serving a prison sentence after the "humiliating and degrading" sex assaults against 10 of his former patients. Ayling, 70, is representing himself against the patients at Canterbury County Court.

The former GP, who practised in Folkestone, Kent, from 1975, was jailed for four years in December 2000 for 13 counts of indecent assault on 10 women patients.

"He was a perverted and wicked man who abused them [patients] for his own sexual gratification." - Sarah Harman, womens' solicitor

The General Medical Council struck him off the medical register in June last year.

Last month, Ayling was let out of Bullingdon jail in Oxfordshire for a previous hearing involving two other former patients.

The decision on the amount of damages to be awarded to the two women was reserved by Judge William Poulton until all 16 claims against him have been dealt with.

In her opening speech Sarah Harman, who is representing all the women, outlined what she described as the humiliating and degrading examinations by Ayling.

She told the court the women, who complained about unnecessary, painful and prolonged examinations, in his surgery.

Ayling insisted they strip naked, causing them intense humiliation, the court heard.

'Dishonest man'

The victims also talked of Ayling's own sexual gratification, saying he was often aroused during examinations, and brushed himself against them.

Ms Harman said Ayling also asked inappropriate questions about the women's sex lives.

"It is the case of these clients that he was a perverted and wicked man who abused them for his own sexual gratification and he is a dishonest man," Ms Harman told the court.

She said the way he had dealt with the assessment of damages had made things worse.

"This is a man who still is in denial of the assaults committed on these claimants and found to be proved, at least some of them, in a criminal court," said Ms Harman.

She claimed he had lied to the court about the exact total of his assets when he was in negotiations with his estranged wife in divorce proceedings.

The case continues.