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Emerson Park doctor found guilty of indecent assault
Dr Mohammed Haq on his way to St Albans Crown Court. Photo: South Beds News Agency - Credit: SOUTH BEDS NEWS AGENCY 01582 572
A doctor was found guilty yesterday (Thursday) of indecently assaulting a teenage girl and three women during unnecessary clinical examinations.
Judge Andrew Bright QC told Dr Mohammed Haq, 74, of Parkstone Avenue, Emerson Park, a “custodial sentence is pretty much inevitable”.
The offences occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s at three practices in Hatfield.
One of the victims, now aged 66, told St Albans Crown Court she first went to see the doctor about her contraceptive coil.
She said she was told to undress, had an internal examination and her breasts examined.
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On the next occasion, she went to Dr Haq with pain in the back and stomach area.
She said: “He told me to take my jumper and bra off and lie on the couch. There was no second person in the room.
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“He started touching the breast area. He was not examining me for problems, he was just fondling. He asked me to stand up and touched my breasts again.”
The youngest victim was 15 when she went to see Haq, about swollen neck glands.
During the trial, prosecutor Miranda Moore QC told the court: “He asked her to take her top, her bra and her trousers off. She was standing in her pants alone in the room with no chaperone.
“He cupped her breasts and twiddled with her nipples. He told her to bend over. She felt stunned.”
She added: “These were inappropriate breasts examinations and there was no clinical justification for what happened.”
Dr Haq was convicted of five counts of indecent assault relating to breast examinations and told to register as a sex offender. He was found not guilty by the jury of inappropriate internal examinations.
He had denied 10 offences of indecent assault relating to four women, the judge ruled there was no case to answer in regard to two offences, the jury found him not guilty of two offences and failed to reach a decision about another charge.
He was bailed to return to St Albans Crown Court on Friday April 22 for sentencing.
