Ali Khorami: Sydney doctor guilty indecently assaulting sleep clinic patients

A GP at an inner west sleep clinic has been found guilty of indecently assaulting several female patients, including a 16-year-old girl, as they slept.

Dr Ali Khorami enters court in Sydney. Picture NCA NewsWire/Damian Shaw

A Sydney doctor has been found guilty of indecently assaulting female patients as they slept, including touching their bodies, masturbating next to them and placing his penis in a girl’s hand.

Dr Ali Khorami stared blankly, his jaw twitching, as the jury handed down its verdict at the Downing Centre Local Court on Monday after nearly two full days of deliberation.

Khorami, 49, had pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of using an intoxicating substance to commit an indictable offence at a sleep clinic in Sydney’s inner west.

He faces years in jail after being convicted of 22 charges, including 21 counts of aggravated indecent assault committed against four patients and one of drugging another, but not guilty of the remaining three charges.

The charges related to five complainants, aged between 16 and 29, who attended Glebe’s Woolcock Institute of Medical Research between July and August 2018.

Ali Khorami wears a mask while walking towards the Downing Centre courts in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Damian Shaw

The court heard during the two-and-a-half-week trial that Khorami had drugged one woman, 20, by spiking her orange juice with the sleeping tablet Temazepam.

The charge of using an intoxicating substance with the intent to commit an indictable offence carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Under cross examination, Khorami said on one occasion he placed his penis on the hand of a 16-year-old girl, but claimed he was engaged in a form of “Tantric healing” at her consent.

The father-of-two also said the girl had told him she was 17.

Dr Ali Khorami has been found guilty of 22 charges. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Damian Shaw

“I got consent from her because legally she can make decision about alternative treatment … any sort of medical treatment,” he told the court.

“She was not sleeping, she wanted to take this experience.”

The girl denied those claims in court.

During the trial, Crown prosecutor Roger Kimbell told the court that after Khorami’s arrest in Rydalmere in October 2018, he said to police he “didn’t hurt” his patients and added “masturbation is not illegal”.

CCTV footage of the sessions were played to the jury during the trial, which at times showed the camera being diverted away from patients as they slept.

Defence barrister Tony Evers blamed those instances on technical glitches and argued many of the allegations against his client were not supported by the unclear and inconclusive footage.

Monday night might be the last Khorami spends as a free man for some time, with the doctor set to return to court on Tuesday to learn if he will be taken into custody ahead of a future sentence date.

Following the decision, the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research released a statement saying its sleep technicians were now monitored by another staff member if they enter the room of a patient during a sleep study.

“As soon as we became aware of the allegations regarding the former employee, we immediately established a number of additional patient security measures, including installing an independent surveillance system on top of the existing patient monitoring system,” the statement read.

“We also implemented an external audit of sleep studies.”