A doctor who is accused of sexually touching patients in his care at two Bucks hospitals is on trial this week.
Salman Qureshi, 41, who used to work for Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust, is on trial at Amersham Law Courts charged with three counts of sexual assault.
These attacks are allaged to have taken place at Wycombe Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital in September 2005 and August 2017.
Qureshi, of Eleanor Gardens in Aylesbury, denies all the charges against him.
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The jury heard today (Wednesday) from one of Quershi’s alleged victims when they were shown a video interview conducted with the police when she first came forward with her allegations.
The court heard how in August 2017, the complainant was ill and was taken by ambulance to hospital, where she was in Qureshi’s care.
She explained in the interview that after she had been treated and was recovering, Qureshi came to her bedside and began to massage her legs, as she had been suffering with muscle cramp.
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She then told the court that as he moved up her legs, he touched her sexually “multiple times”.
When the police interviewer asked her how this made her feel, she said: “It made me feel really confused because I didn’t know what to do.
“He was a doctor so I was not sure what to do, I knew he shouldn’t be doing it but I didn’t say anything, I just froze because I didn’t know what to do or say.”
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court that Qureshi then left the room and soon discharged her from the hospital.
She told the court that she did not tell anyone about what had happened for some time, but that it had a severe impact on her life afterwards.
She said: “I was quite angry but I didn’t want to try and show how I felt in front of my family.
“I was quite moody, I just felt like I was trying to keep it in and felt really angry about it.”
The woman eventually told her mother about what had happened before going to the police. When asked why she didn’t talk about it straight away, she said: “I felt ashamed and disgusting about it and for a long time I didn’t want to believe it.
“I thought that if I didn’t tell anyone that would help me to forget it, but that didn’t work.”
Qureshi was first charged with the offences more than two years ago, in September 2019. At the time he was charged, Bucks Healthcare Trust confirmed that he was no longer employed by them.
Quershi is charged with one count of sexual assault by touching and two counts of assault by penetration. He denies the charges against him.
The trial continues.
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