Christchurch doctor Rakesh Chawdhry caught attacking patients for a third time

Rakesh Kumar Chawdhry was working as a GP at the Riccarton Clinic when he sexually abused men between 2011 and 2015, mainly through the use of a "milking procedure" in which he tried to give them erections. Photo / George Heard

CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses sexual offending and may be upsetting.

A former Christchurch doctor and repeat sex offender has been caught attacking patients for a third time.

Rakesh Kumar Chawdhry was working as a GP at the Riccarton Clinic when he sexually abused 12 men between 2011 and 2015, mainly through the use of a “milking procedure” in which he tried to give them erections.

He was jailed in 2018 for four years and three months after being found guilty at a judge-alone trial at the Christchurch District Court on one charge of unlawful sexual connection and 11 of indecent assault.

Following publicity around his criminal trial, two more victims came forward and Chawdhry pleaded guilty to charges relating to them. An extra two months was added to his jail time.

Rakesh Chawdhry insisted what he was doing to his patients was a legitimate medical procedure. Photo / File

He was released on parole in July 2019, but was soon back before the courts charged with six charges of indecent assault.

On Thursday, Chawdhry was sentenced to six months’ community detention and 200 hours community work by Judge Raoul Neave in the Christchurch District Court.

Chawdhry’s lawyer, Fiona Guy Kidd KC said it was a “most unusual case”, as he had already been sent to jail for offending relating to 12 other complainants during the same time period.

“He’s served that prison sentence, he had been found by the New Zealand Parole Board as not being an undue risk to members of society and therefore released on parole.”

Guy Kidd KC submitted he should be sentenced to community detention with community work, along with reparation.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Harvey said the victim did not want their impact statement to be read in court, or to attend the sentencing.

Judge Raoul Neave said because of the “peculiarities of this case” and the way things had developed, the key issue was whether he should be sentenced to community work or community detention.

“This is an unusual situation,” he said.

According to the summary of facts, which Chawdhry pleaded guilty to, the complainant approached the former doctor in relation to his work as a medical practitioner.

The man went to Chawdhry in relation to his anxiety, depression, pain relief, and a sexually transmitted infection check and treatment as well as difficulty getting an erection.

During an appointment Chawdhry asked him to remove his clothing. Chawdhry then began to masturbate the victim, while telling him to shut his eyes.

He asked him, “do you enjoy that?”.

Chawdhry told him the procedure was “milking”.

After the victim left the appointment, and over the following days he received a message from Chawdhry asking to meet him at a bar.

He also liked his photos and had Facebook contact with him.

About two or three months after the incident, the man needed to renew his medication.

He attended another appointment with Chawdhry.

He advised the victim he had some Indian medication for him, for erectile problems.

He told him to lie on the bed and indecently assaulted him.

Chawdhry indecently assaulted him on four further occasions during other appointments.

Judge Neave said the victim had found the offending “incredibly distressing”, and now had trust issues with medical practitioners.

They felt alone and isolated, as well as anger and depression.

Judge Neave sentenced him to six months’ community detention and 200 hours community work. The amount of the reparation order was suppressed.

After a judge-alone trial at Christchurch District Court in 2017, Judge Jane Farish found that India-born Chawdhry, in his role as a doctor, took the opportunity to offend against male patients, predominantly by undertaking what he described as a medical procedure called the “milking procedure”.

But Judge Farish found that it was not a medical procedure at all, but rather Chawdhry taking a sexualised interest in them and trying to get them to obtain an erection.

Sometimes, patients were not even visiting for a genital check-up. Other times, the doctor offended during opportunistic sexually transmissible infections (STI) checks.

The men told the court in victim impact statements that they felt embarrassed and ashamed, and that the crimes had had a “significant and profound effect”, with some now avoiding doctors’ appointments.

Judge Farish said it is hard to think of a grosser breach of trust, involving “invasive, skin-on-skin offending”.

One victim told how they were “horribly shocked” afterwards and walked out of their GP appointment shaking. For a long time, they had tried to forget it, but since Chawdhry was a doctor, and that he was forceful, the victim felt they had to “pretend it was right”.

Judge Farish said Chawdhry has been in denial for a long time, in relation to his guilt, and in his sexual orientation towards men.

As he was jailed, an earlier suppression order was eased to allow reporting for the first time that in 2014 Chawdhry was acquitted on a sex allegation charge. Further details of the allegations are subject to a final suppression order.

A pre-sentence report at the time did not show that Chawdhry has accepted his guilt, Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes said.

He said there was a substantial breach of trust, which his then defence counsel Paul Wicks QC accepted.

Wicks highlighted Chawdhry’s contribution to the community, through voluntary work and financial donations to “many people from his home country”.

The high-profile nature of the case, and the “extraordinary vilification” he’s been subjected to, will have an impact on him as an inmate, Wicks claimed.

In jailing him to four years and three months, Judge Farish also ordered him to pay the victim of unlawful sexual connection an emotional harm payment of $4000, while paying the nine other victims $2000 each.

Chawdhry was released on parole in July 2019. The Board said it was clear there had been a “significant change in his thinking”.

“He appears to have come to a realisation that in the circumstances of the doctor-patient power imbalance and his own self-image that he had put himself in a situation where he now accepts he had caused immense harm to his victims,” the Board said.

“He spoke quite convincingly about what an eye-opener it had been for him to be put in the reverse situation as a prisoner with pressure being brought to bear on him in a situation where he was not able to really defend himself.”

Chawdhry had also written a letter and although he maintained that there was no sexual motivation to what he did he accepted the wrongness of what he did and the position that he put his victims in.

The Board was satisfied that he no longer posed an undue risk.

In September 2019 Chawdhry had his registration cancelled by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.