A surgeon has denied sexually assaulting a distressed patient in her car and said he only got in to comfort her verbally.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Puthur Damodaran, 41, stands accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in her car in Leatherhead Hospital car park on July 9 last year.

The patient, in her mid-20s with long-standing back pain, had an appointment with Dr Damodaran who examined her but did not to give back MRI scan results that she had been hoping for.

Dr Damodaran today told Guildford Crown Court that she was distressed by the delay and when he left the hospital in Poplar Road, following her appointment, he saw her still looking upset.

He said that he asked if everything was OK and he listened to her as they walked back towards their parked cars where she started to become "very tearful".

He said he tried to make her feel better, gave advice, put his own bag into his car and then checked to see if she had recovered but found her still teary in her car.

He said: "Looking back I thought it was an error of judgement, I should not have entered the car."

But he added: "My main aim was to give her comfort and it was a momentary judgement."

He said: "I have never experienced this before. It was the first time I had seen a patient crying in the car park. I felt sorry for her."

During cross examination, Prosecutor Ruby Selva suggested that the doctor put his bag away because it "freed up" his hands and once inside the car he told her to recline her seat and relax.

Ms Selva said he then sexually assaulted using the guise of a re-examination. She said: "You put your hand under her trousers, touching her groin, rubbing your hand over her vagina."

But Dr Damodaran denied conducting any kind of examination or sexual assault in the car, adding: "I was hardly two minutes in the car and I spoke to her for a few minutes."

He said that he put his own bag in the car because he planned to drive off and thought she would have composed herself in a few minutes.

He said: "I was tired after 36 hours of duty and my aim was to go home."

Dr Damodaran said that during his earlier examination in the clinic the patient said she felt pain in her inner thigh leading to the groin area.

He said he asked her to loosen her trousers in order to check her hip joint and the sides of his fingers may accidentally have "brushed against" her private parts.

He said: "It is part and parcel of the examination."

However, Prosecutor Ruby Selva argued that he had not examined this area of her body or gone under her trousers during the appointment at the hospital.

She suggested that this had been made-up by Dr Damodaran in case police had found DNA evidence on the woman's body or clothes.

She said there was no mention of vaginal or groin pain in previous notes or a summary that he gave to her GP following the appointment. Mr Damodaran, from Horley, who is listed on the fellows and members list of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, appeared in court clean-shaven, in a suit and white shirt.

On Monday Ms Selva told the court that the doctor touched the woman’s inner leg, nipple and vagina, through her clothes, and tried to remove her top.

She said: "The defendant sexually assaulted the victim to satisfy his own perverse need, banking on the implicit trust we members of public have in doctors."

In a police statement following the incident the woman said: "It’s getting to my brain. I’m angry. Why didn’t I be clever enough? It makes me feel like every five minutes I want to have a wash or wash my car."

The case continues.

 

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