KEY POINTS:
One of the victims of disgraced New Plymouth doctor Hiran Fernando says she is shocked to hear he has been released from prison.
Fernando, 60, was freed on Wednesday, having served more than two-thirds of his 38-month prison term for sexual offending against patients.
A jury found him guilty in November 2006 of 26 charges of indecently assaulting 10 women over 21 years from 1981.
One of those women said she realised he was likely to get out of jail after his latest Parole Board hearing, but the news still came as a shock.
She feared she would one day run into Fernando, she told The Taranaki Daily News.
"Before I'd tailored my life so I would be less likely to run into him anywhere, and now I feel gutted, really gutted that there's a chance I could bump into him."
While Fernando is now back in his New Plymouth home, he is virtually under house arrest for the next year.
Conditions of his parole mean he cannot leave his home at all unless he has permission from his probation officer, he must undergo counselling and he has to attend a Parole Board hearing early next year to monitor his progress.
Fernando continually denied his offending, even while in prison. The board took that into consideration when it denied him parole this time last year.
Fernando was struck off the New Zealand Medical Council register in July and has told the Parole Board he has no intention to return to the profession.
- NZPA
