GP ‘molested female patients as young as nine’ under guise of medical examinations, court hears

Alan Tutin accused of abusing 25 female patients at a Guildford GP practice over 20 years

A GP molested female patients under the guise of medical examinations. (istock)

A GP molested female patients under the guise of medical examinations for over two decades, a court has heard.

Dr Alan Tutin, who practised at the Merrow Park Practice in Guildford, Surrey is accused of sexually assaulting 25 females as young as nine-years-old for his own sexual pleasure during his 24-year career.

Prosecutor Sally O'Neill QC told London's Old Bailey that Dr Tutin, who now lives near the Kent town of Tonbridge, carried out entirely “unnecessary and inappropriate examinations” of the breasts and intimate areas of his patients.

She said he appeared "to have had quite a dominant personality and perhaps a somewhat arrogant and brusque way of dealing with both patients and staff."

She added: “He may also have been somewhat old-fashioned in his approach to patients and did not explain to them all the time what he was doing before he did it and why it was necessary.”

Dr Tutin, now 70, started working at the Guildford surgery, where his wife Angela was also a partner, in 1980 and stopped practising in 2004.

He had previously been the subject of police investigations, professional misconduct hearings and even criminal trials, with allegations of sexual abuse in 1999 resulting in two trials which did not end in “adverse findings”.

In 2001, the General Medical Council (GMC) became involved and he attended a fitness to practice hearing.

Following a 2003 sexual assault complaint, police and GMC were alerted and the defendant was warned to have a chaperones present during examinations of female patients.

Dr Tutin now faces 27 charges of indecent assault and one charge of assault by penetration dating between 1981 and 2004.

Ms O'Neill said that Dr Tutin believed he was untouchable when he took over as senior partner and "wielded a lot of influence" in his new role.

The trial was about “whether he used his position as a doctor to take advantage of often vulnerable patients to carry out unnecessary and inappropriate examinations of them for his own sexual gratification," she said.

She added: "He may have felt himself to be untouchable and unchallengeable at the time because of his position both in the practice and in society."

Two female medical professionals who came into contact with the father-of-four through their work also accused him of sexual misconduct.

Dr Tutin denies all charges against him and argues that any examination his carried out was for sound medical reasons.

The trial continues.