Rhodes GP Faisal Qidwai charged with assaulting, choking estranged wife

A Sydney GP with a tragic past allegedly issued chilling threats to his estranged wife while subjecting her to two violent attacks, court documents reveal.

Sydney GP Faisal Qidwai is facing domestic violence charges amid allegations he assaulted, choked and threatened his estranged wife inside their Croydon home. He was granted conditional bail in the Supreme Court in July. Picture: Supplied

A Sydney GP with a tragic past allegedly threatened to “surgically dissect” his estranged wife’s eyeballs and tendons in a series of terrifying attacks inside their Croydon home, a court has heard.

Police allege Dr Faisal Qidwai, a director at the MyHealth medical centre in Rhodes, slapped and punched his doctor wife and tried to strangle her in two separate but equally violent acts of abuse that allegedly occurred less than a week apart.

It is alleged the assaults were accompanied by chilling threats in which Qidwai promised to torture and kill the woman.

He was arrested on May 24 and spent two months behind bars on remand before being granted strict conditional bail by the NSW Supreme Court last week to attend a live-in, locked mental health facility in Sydney.

As part of his bail, Qidwai is only allowed out of the clinic in the company of his sisters to visit his father, Khalid Qidwai, a highly respected doctor in the Pakistani community who is dying of cancer.

Dr Qidwai (pictured) was bailed to live in a locked mental health facility in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

His mother, Shahnaz, also a doctor, was murdered in 2012 by former patient turned robber Tony Halloun, who had been hired by the family to concrete the driveway of their inner west home, the court heard.

According to prosecution documents tendered in the bail proceedings, 48-year-old Qidwai was separated from his wife at the time of the alleged assaults but the pair was still living under the same roof.

The court heard Qidwai’s alleged threats towards the woman involved specific references to his abilities as a doctor.

“I’m going to put my hand down your throat, I’m going to rip out you lungs and I’m going to make it look like a suicide,” Qidwai allegedly told her during an incident on the morning of May 19.

“I have resources, gangster connections. I have resources to the point no one will even know it was me.”

Five days later, Qidwai allegedly attacked the woman again, this time grabbing her around the neck and trying to choke her.

At the same time, he allegedly told her he would put his “good surgical skills” to use in torturing her.

“I will surgically dissect you, I will make you suffer,” he allegedly said.

“I’m a surgeon … I will dissect your eyeballs, I will dissect your tendons. I won’t kill you, I will make you suffer.”

The court heard a neighbour witnessed some of the alleged abuse while the woman was taking garbage outside and knocked on the family’s front door out of concern for her safety.

Qidwai allegedly confronted the witness, saying “this is my house, I can do whatever the f—k I want” and “if you report this she is going to be in trouble”.

The witness contacted emergency services who arrived a short time later and arrested Qidwai.

Qidwai was granted bail after appearing before the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney (pictured). NSW. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

The court heard the wife allegedly repeatedly told officers she was terrified of her husband but had not reported the incidents to police because she believed he would murder her.

Qidwai was charged with assault, stalking and choking offences. He is yet to enter pleas.

In court last week, Justice Richard Button said the only reason he was releasing Qidwai was because he was being taken to a locked facility.

“There’s ample evidence here that this man has serious mental issues,” he said.

“If this were not a locked facility and if I did not trust this well known and well regarded clinic … I think it’s the case that bail would have had to have been refused.”

The case will return to court in September.