Former Bendigo doctor David Frederick Miller released from prison after sexually abusing young patients

A depraved doctor from Bendigo who raped and sexually assaulted at least 11 female patients — one as young as five — has been released back into the community.

For years, David Frederick Miller abused his position as a trusted country doctor to rape and sexually assault at least 11 female patients, leaving behind a trail of “human wreckage”.

Miller, 80, was described as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” after he was recently found to have committed 13 indecent assaults against seven patients more than 40 years ago.

But the “monstrous” pedophile from Bendigo has now been released back into the community, after he was declared “unfit” to stand trial in the County Court due to his “cognitive decline”.

The Herald Sun can reveal the extent of Miller’s wicked crimes after a gag order was lifted following his unconditional release.

Former Bendigo doctor David Frederick Miller in 2007. Picture: Bendigo Advertiser

The court heard the former GP molested his seven victims – aged between five and 39 – mainly by digitally penetrating them, usually under the guise of a medical procedure.

Miller was previously convicted for indecently assaulting four other patients.

Judge Marcus Dempsey told the court it was hard to imagine a “graver breach of social trust”, since Miller abused his position as a doctor to “sexually violate” his victims.

“It was vile, unconscionable and deplorable offending,” he said.

“I cannot condemn it enough.”

Miller, after being declared unfit to stand trial, faced three “special hearings” from July to September where three juries were tasked with determining whether he had “committed” the offences as alleged.

A defendant is unfit to stand trial if they are unable to understand their charges or their trial because their mental processes are “disordered or impaired”.

Kaye Maher was sexually abused as a 14-year-old girl by Miller in 1977. Picture: Supplied

Miller was charged with 14 counts of indecent assault against seven victims, which was the relevant sexual offence at the time of his offending.

If his crimes were committed today, he would have faced rape charges.

Wheelchair-bound and wearing a necklace with a small wooden cross, the frail man appeared via video link from Port Phillip Prison for the majority of the hearings.

He was once a respected member of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Bendigo.

During the first hearing, a jury heard Miller, then in his 30s, indecently assaulted five females while working at the Arnold Street Clinic in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Shockingly, three of his victims were from the same family.

The patients came to him with a range of health issues, with one 10-year-old girl attending the clinic because she had an issue with the skin on her foot.

But regardless of their ailments, Miller would tell them to lie down on his consultation bed before digitally penetrating them without warning.

“We better check if you have any other issues,” he said to one girl before removing her underwear.

The assaults would last between one and five minutes.

He told one teenage patient it was a “method of healing”, while another was molested behind a drawn curtain as her mother waited patiently in the room.

Medical experts gave evidence that Miller’s actions were “not consistent with normal, standard practice”, especially when he did not use gloves.

Seven of the eight charges of indecent assault were found proven, with the jury “vindicating” all five victims.

Previous media coverage of Dr Miller’s legal proceedings, which discusses his “problem with female patients”. Picture: Supplied

In the second hearing, a jury heard Miller sexually assaulted a five-year-old girl twice in her home.

Miller, who was the family’s doctor, was invited over for dinner and after the meal, gave piggyback rides to the kids.

He gave the girl a ride into a bedroom, where he laid her down on the floor and indecently assaulted her.

“Did that tickle?” she recalled him saying.

The jury found he had committed two counts of indecent assault, but after the verdict was handed down, Miller chuckled to himself.

“Mate, that’s a joke,” he said over video link.

During the final hearing, a jury heard horrific details of how Miller repeatedly sexually assaulted a teenage girl after her mother died.

Medical records showed the woman attended 10 appointments at the clinic in the late 1970s.

She told the jury she was indecently assaulted by the doctor each time.

Miller also preyed on her after she had babysat his children.

He was found by the jury to have committed four counts of indecent assault, with the offending in the clinic rolled up into one charge.

In early December, Judge Dempsey was tasked with determining Miller’s fate following the special hearings.

He described the doctor as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who had left “human wreckage” in his wake.

Reading a powerful letter she penned to the court, one woman said she would not be defined as a victim but as a “courageous survivor”.

“I am proud to say I am not his victim,” she said.

“I have survived … encounters with his wicked evilness.”

The woman branded Miller an “evil perpetrator”, shedding tears as she described how he rocked her belief system “to its core”.

Judge Dempsey said Miller was declared unfit on the basis of “unanimous expert opinions”.

“His decline was such that he would never be fit to be tried,” he said.

This meant he could not legally be sentenced to time behind bars, despite having spent more than 1000 days in custody since his arrest.

Judge Dempsey had to either place Miller, who has multiple health conditions, on a non-custodial supervision order or release him unconditionally.

A second woman said she felt “angry and disappointed” Miller – who she described as a “danger to the community” – could not be locked up.

“He should be jailed for life,” she said.

While a third woman said she was “betrayed in the deepest way”.

“My spirit is crushed to the core,” she said.

Judge Dempsey said psychologists from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health had recommended Miller be released unconditionally, which was an outcome accepted by the prosecution and defence.

He is expected to live out the remainder of his days in a residential aged-care facility in NSW.