Doctor Khang Phu Nguyen took ‘disgraceful’ photo up girl’s school dress

A doctor who took a photo under a teen girl’s dress at Melbourne airport has been banned from working in healthcare for his “disgraceful” act.

Khang Phu Nguyen was spotted by a fellow passenger and arrested by federal police at Melbourne Airport, where he confessed to his crime. Picture: iStock

A doctor who took a secret photo up a teenager’s school dress sexually exploited a child and has been banned from healthcare for five years.

A 16-year-old girl was on a school excursion in November 2019 when former doctor Khang Phu Nguyen – seated next to her on a domestic flight – took an inappropriate photo, a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.

Mr Nguyen was spotted by a fellow passenger and arrested by federal police at Melbourne Airport, where he confessed to his crime.

Tribunal members Anna Dea, Dr Roderick McRae and Dr Angela Williams said the “contemptible” behaviour was “especially disgraceful” from a medical practitioner and criticised Mr Nguyen for calling it an “incident”.

“She was a child at the time (made unmistakably obvious by the fact she was wearing a school uniform) and was entitled to feel safe from criminal sexual offending,” they said.

They said creating such pornographic photos criminally exploited and sexualised “women and girls going about their everyday lives” and could impact his victim’s ability to trust medical professionals and both her and her school community’s sense of safety.

“[Students] were on a school trip and were entitled to return home with good memories,” they said.

They also criticised him for taking several days to report his behaviour to Sydney’s Westmead Hospital — where he was training to be a cancer specialist — and the medical board.

He has not worked as a doctor since he resigned in February 2020 and pleaded guilty – but escaped a conviction – over the matter at Broadmeadows Magistrate Court in March 2022.

The magistrate said he had no priors, had sought psychiatric treatment, showed insight and was an “otherwise hardworking man who … has very good prospects moving forward” and a career that may be harmed by a conviction.

He was instead ordered to donate $3,000 to charity and sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond for the “totally unacceptable” act.

But while Nguyen was “compliant” with psychiatric treatment pre-criminal trial for depression and anxiety, the Tribunal ruled there was not enough evidence to find he had addressed “the fact” he committed a sexual offence against “a female child in a school uniform”.

They said while Mr Nguyen submitted letters saying he “deeply regretted” his actions and accepted “full responsibility” to the Magistrate Court two years ago, they could not rule he was sufficiently remorseful to consider returning to medicine without more recent evidence.

In those letters, Mr Nguyen said he had been struggling with the move to Sydney for a new job, had poor work-life balance, “sleepless nights from being on call” and “significant workplace stress” and guaranteed he would “not reoffend”.

In their reasons handed down this week, VCAT also reprimanded Mr Nguyen and – in addition to cancelling his doctor registration and disqualifying him from reapplying for five years – banned him from working or volunteering in any healthcare role while he is unregistered.