Handsy Dr Fady Malak convicted and sentenced for massaging patient’s buttocks
`What did you do that for you idiot’ — A married doctor was depressed when he felt a rush of excitement and touched a female patient’s buttocks before she admonished him, a court has heard.
Central Coast
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A West Gosford doctor has been convicted and sentenced for sexually touching a female patient.
Suspended Dr Fady Malak, 38, of Erina, faced Gosford Local Court on Friday after pleading guilty to rubbing a patient’s buttocks and kissing her neck.
His lawyer tendered a number of psychiatric reports, which the court heard diagnosed Dr Malak with depression at the time of the offence at a West Gosford GP clinic about 1.40pm on October 2, 2020.
The court heard Dr Malak immigrated from Egypt to Australia in 2015 to seek better medical treatment for his daughter and initially found it difficult.
His lawyer said he had worked hard and in some remote places before settling on the Central Coast where he had been treating the female patient for a few years.
He said the doctor-patient relationship had been professional up to the incident and that Dr Malak had failed to recognise “all those classic symptoms of depression” in himself and had “soldiered on”.
The court heard Dr Malak “totally misread” the situation and thought the patient was attracted to him, which gave him a rush of excitement.
His lawyer said it was “entirely spontaneous” and the female patient admonished him immediately as if to say “what did you do that for you idiot” before storming out.
He said Dr Malak’s medical licence was suspended on February 5 and it would take a lot of psychological treatment and time before he could apply to have the suspension lifted.
Summarising an agreed set of police facts Magistrate Jennifer Price said the woman attended an appointment where he got her to lie down on her side and he began to feel around her hips, which was appropriate for her condition.
She said he then asked her to lie down on her stomach and pull her underwear down, which she did halfway.
Magistrate Price said Dr Malak the put on gloves and lubricated his hands before he started massaging her buttocks, which was inappropriate and the patient started feeling uncomfortable.
She said he asked if she had ever had a massage and when the woman sat up he was between her legs and leant in and kissed her twice on the neck.
Magistrate Price said the woman told him he was a “married man and it was inappropriate”.
The court heard the woman reported it to police who got a warrant for her to wear a listening device and recorded a conversation she had with Dr Malak afterwards where he said he “made a mistake” and apologised profusely.
He was arrested and charged in January.
Magistrate Price said while she accepted the offending was “spontaneous and opportunistic” he was “in a position of authority” and the patient was vulnerable.
She said he failed in his ethical responsibility as a doctor and that the offending crossed the threshold where only a term of imprisonment was appropriate.
However she said given the patient was not under 16 years of age it was not a prescribed sexual offence and he could serve that penalty in the community by way of an intensive corrections order for 14 months.
She also ordered he perform 100 hours of community service.
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