Sex-charge doctor must tell patients

A New Plymouth doctor is facing multiple sex offence charges involving five women patients.

He has been charged with one count of sexual violation and 13 of indecent assault during consultations in his surgery in the 1980s and 1990s.

His name and job were suppressed during earlier appearances at New Plymouth District Court.

But after challenges this month from the police and the Taranaki Daily News, Judge Louis Bidois has decided the man's occupation, but not his name, should be made public.

Judge Bidois said the doctor agreed that, if asked, he would tell any patient or potential patient he was the defendant.

He was prohibited from carrying out intimate examinations except in an emergency.

Judge Bidois said the public had the right to know of the allegations, particularly existing or potential patients.

During the suppression hearing, the doctor's lawyer, Harry Waalkens, QC, said the court could not determine the strength of the police case as depositions had not yet been heard. The charges would be vigorously defended, he said.

- NZPA