An emergency physician appeared in court on Tuesday, September 3, for sexual assaults on patients in a Toulouse clinic, and the prosecutor requested a two-year prison sentence, one of which was suspended. The decision of the Toulouse Criminal Court was adjourned until September 24. According to the statements of the seven alleged victims, the emergency physician could insult, touch breasts or pubic area, pinch nipples, kiss with tongue, put hands on the buttocks, on the thigh.
In court, the 65-year-old doctor admitted to being «tactile» and regretted that the complainants had suffered from his attitude. The doctor, already convicted of harassment and sexual assault, struggled to convince when he argued at the hearing that his “gestures were misinterpreted”His lawyer Alexandre Martin pleads the “clumsiness”. “These are not sexual assaults. These are venial acts that were badly experienced by the patients.”he downplays, highlighting an exemplary medical career “of which he can be proud”.
The defendant, who spent four months in detention, displays “a total lack of listening and consideration of the victims’ words”regrets Angèle Fères-Massol, lawyer of one of the victims. The absence of sanctions on the part of the private clinic is “quite inexplicable”continues the lawyer, “He was working as a temporary worker in places that were understaffed, I think he knew he would be hard-pressed to leave.”.
