Illawarra doctor allegedly prescribed patient ‘boxes’ of drugs in exchange for sex acts
A respected Illawarra doctor is behind bars after explosive allegations he sexually abused a drug-dependant patient in exchange for medication.
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An Illawarra doctor could be facing a maximum of 20 years behind bars if covicted, after he was charged over allegations he bribed a drug-dependent patient with opiates in exchange for sexual acts.
Balgownie doctor Thean Soo Chin, who practices under the name Christoper Chin, was refused bail in Wollongong Local Court this afternoon, after police raided his home on Thursday morning and charged him with two counts of sexual touching and two counts of aggravated sexual assault.
In court documents tendered to the court, police allege Chin left one his long-term male patients feeling “degraded and ashamed” after forcing him to perform sex acts in exchange for up to 10 boxes of opiates at a time.
Chin, a respected doctor who has been working the same Balgownie Practice for 19 years, first began seeing the alleged victim in March 2001, after he underwent a hernia operation.
After seeing Chin for several years, he was prescribed medication including Panadeine Forte for depression and headaches.
The medication no longer had an affect on the patient and he asked Chin if he could be prescribed something stronger, which prompted Chin to write out a script for Endone. Over the next 12 months, Chin increased the dosage at the man’s request, until it too was no longer working for him.
Chin then started prescribing the alleged victim with opioid based medications OxyContin and OxyNorm, increasing the dosage over several months.
Police will allege that Chin’s conversations with his patient turned sexual around 2014, after the man joked he had mistaken a transsexual male for a female while on a night out with mates.
It’s alleged that from this point, Chin started telling jokes of a sexual nature to the man, which he dismissed, professing his love for his wife and children and explaining that he was not attracted to men.
The jokes slowly progressed to touching the man on his inner thigh, with Chin allegedly making remarks like “you like that don’t you”.
The alleged victim dismissed the alleged advances, telling police he “just wanted his OxyContin prescriptions filled”.
Court documents allege that in 2016 Chin began touching the alleged victim on his buttocks and penis. Police will allege the man was “too worried” to report the alleged abuse, for fear that no one would believe him, and because of his dependence on prescription drugs.
Police will allege the man began secretly recording the consults with Chin from this point forward. On one occasion in January 2017, its alleged the man recorded Chin pulling down his pants to expose his penis, asking the victim if he “liked what he saw” and if he wanted to “play with it”. Court documents allege the victim said “depends on what you give me”, before Chin said he was not able to prescribe the man with the amount of drugs he was requesting.
During the same consult, police will allege Chin wrote the man a prescription for 10 boxes of OxyContin, after he performed a sex act on him in his office.
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A few months later, the man returned to see Chin, where he allegedly “felt pressured” to perform more sex acts on his doctor in order to fuel his prescription drug dependency.
After years of alleged abuse by his doctor, the man made a statement to police on October 8 this year, after Chin sexually touched him once more during an appointment.
On October 18, police allegedly recorded a consult between Chin and the man, where he touched the man sexually, and requested sex acts.
After his arrest on Thursday morning, police allege in court documents that Chin admitted to bribing the man with prescription medication in exchange for sexual acts.
Despite Chin offering a $50,000 bail surety, Magistrate Michael Stoddart refused the doctor’s application for release, noting the community needed to be protected from his alleged behaviours.
“These are very serious allegations,” he said. “My main concern is the protection of the community … these are a dreadful set of facts.”
The case will return to court in December.