By Cameron Houston & Chris Vedelago
They were burdened with the same dark secret for decades and vivid memories of his heavy breathing.
All three women had been treated by Hawthorn doctor Con Kyriacou, but claim their consultations had led to inappropriate comments, fondling and alleged sexual assault.
Sandra Rokebrand, Maria Moutsidis and Suzii Crowley allege serious misconduct on the part of former Hawthorn doctor Con Kyriacou.Credit: Justin McManus
There were several previous attempts to alert authorities about Dr Kyriacou's alleged misconduct, but they feared their stories would not be accepted by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or police.
At that stage, they were unaware of each other and felt powerless to challenge a respected doctor, who had also treated their family members and friends.
But the case of Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes in 2014 provided some hope.
They were further encouraged in 2015, when sexual assault charges were laid against Dr Andrew Churchyard, who had been the subject of complaints dating back to 2007 which the Medical Board of Australia failed to act on.
And their resolve was recently galvanised by the #MeToo movement which exposed predatory behaviour by powerful men around the globe.
Maria Moutsidis, 61, Sandra Rokebrand, 52, and Suzii Crowley, 49, have independently lodged official complaints against Dr Kyriacou, who is now the subject of a two-year investigation by AHPRA.
An AHPRA spokeswoman confirmed the Medical Board of Australia had referred Dr Kyriacou to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which is expected to be heard in January next year.
But while under investigation for more than a year, the 75-year-old doctor removed himself from the register of medical practitioners in August 2017.
Dr Constantine Kyriacou.Credit: Joe Armao
Frustrated by the lengthy delays and determined to make Dr Kyriacou accountable, they have allowed The Age to identify them and publish harrowing details of their alleged assaults.
Dr Kyriacou did not respond to questions from The Sunday Age.
His lawyer, John Petts from Kennedys, also declined to answer questions, but said Dr Kyriacou was suffering from a "significant cognitive impairment".
"You have questioned how it could be that Dr Kyriacou cannot recall these patients but can deny the alleged actions. The answer is that when these allegations were first made, Dr Kyriacou was able to provide clear instructions and he denied the allegations," Mr Petts said.
But the passage of time has not dimmed the memories of his alleged victims, who distinctly recall his panting as he "massaged" them.
Ms Moutsidis, who has worked as an actress and singer for the past 35 years using the stage-name Maria Mercedes, said her encounter with Dr Kyriacou had gnawed at her for almost 40 years.
"It's not something you think about all the time, but it's like a little devil sitting on your shoulder. You blame yourself and wonder if you did something to make it happen," she said.
Ms Moutsidis first visited Dr Kyriacou in 1978 at a practice in Hawthorn - just before her 21st birthday - when she started suffering from panic attacks and chronic anxiety.
He was a trusted family doctor and a prominent member of Melbourne's Greek community; a position she claims he exploited.
Maria Moutsidis.Credit: Justin McManus
He initially conducted himself in a warm, professional manner, but she soon became concerned when he started locking the door of his consulting room.
"For whatever medical reason that I came to see him, sore throat, anxiety, abdominal pain, he would ask me to fully undress. Always," she said in a sworn statement to AHPRA on January 31, 2018.
"He would want to conduct stretching exercises, where I was asked to stretch backward whilst sitting on the examination table, (while) fully naked.
"I would be asked to stand with Dr Kyriacou standing behind me and he directing me to lean backwards onto him, whereby he proceeded to stretch my body and I would feel his erect penis, pressing behind me," she said.
But things got even worse, according to Ms Moutsidis.
"He had tried to kiss me and succeeded once, sticking his tongue in my mouth. Another time he had me naked on the examination table and he proceeded to masturbate me. I pushed him away saying to him: 'What are you doing?' Dr Kyriacou replied: 'I'm just trying to make you feel better," Ms Moutsidis alleges in her statement.
She accuses Dr Kyriacou of preying on "my vulnerability, my youth and by desperation to be healed".
"Throughout the decades that have passed, I always wanted to report him to the authorities. I think better to report him now, than never," she said.
Suzii Crowley, 49, has also spent years grappling with indecision, after first reporting to the Medical Board of Australia in 2004. She withdrew the complaint when she began to doubt if her story would be believed.
Suzii CrowleyCredit: Justin McManus
"For years, I have been in denial about it. It's like something separate to me - that happened to someone else. I'd think about it over the years. Sometimes I'd feel angry, I'd think 'what if he does it to some other girl'?"
After several false starts, Ms Crowley filed an official complaint with AHPRA in July 2016.
Again, her first consultations with Dr Kyriacou at his Barkers Road practice in 2001 began without incident, and she recalls him as "warm, personable, very European".
She was trying to conceive at the time. When she visited Dr Kyriacou to confirm her pregnancy, he conducted a vaginal examination, allegedly without gloves, and asked: "Are you quick to orgasm?"
"I was shocked. I was saying responses like, um...ah," Ms Crowley said in a sworn statement provided to AHPRA more than two years ago.
After the internal examination, Dr Kyriacou said he needed to perform a breast examination.
"He was kneading both my breasts with two hands, like a massage, both breasts at the same time. It was like he was kneading bread. Then he would glide across the whole hand, then he flicked both nipples with his finger at the same time," she claims in her statement.
Then, Dr Kyriacou allegedly instructed Ms Crowley that he needed to examine the muscles in her back.
"Dr Kyriacou walked right against me, in between my legs, into me. He asked me to put my arms up around him, to put my arms around his shoulder...We were completely touching, everything was touching. I felt his penis against me," she alleges in the sworn statement given to AHPRA.
She was completely naked and recalls his heavy breathing, which lasted for almost a minute.
A mother of three children, Ms Crowley is scathing of AHPRA and its handling of the matter.
"I've had three case managers, they are completely hopeless. I just don't understand how this has taken so long.
"Each time they change case managers, I have to re-tell the story, which is obviously not pleasant," Ms Crowley said.
All three complainants claim AHPRA is more concerned with protecting the reputation of doctors and the broader medical profession at the expense of protecting and informing patients.
An AHPRA spokeswoman did not respond to questions from The Age.
"AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia takes any notifications referred to us very seriously...Privacy provisions in the National Law restrict what we can say to that which is publicly available," the spokeswoman said.
Sandra Rokebrand, 52, is also running out of patience with AHPRA and its handling of the investigation.
Also a mother of three, Ms Rokebrand first raised her concerns with police and the Medical Board of Australia in 2004 and 2008, before making an official complaint in August 2016.
Sandra RokebrandCredit: Justin McManus
During a meeting in 2008 with Victoria Police's sexual offences and child abuse investigation team (SOCIT), she was discouraged from filing a complaint by an officer who said it was her word against his.
In her sworn statement to AHPRA, Ms Rokebrand also complained about massages given by Dr Kyriacou, which he claimed would help with her scoliosis.
He would leave the office after instructing her to remove her clothes, other than her underpants and bra.
"He would then open my legs and stand between my legs. He would remove my bra and wrap his arms around me and thrust his body into me. His head was either on my shoulder or close to my head. He pressed hard on my back muscles with his hands and ran his hands over my back as he continued to pull me towards him with the so called 'massaging'. He breathed heavily throughout. He felt and smelled sweaty," Ms Rokebrand said.
These massages allegedly occurred more than a dozen times.
She also complained about Dr Kyriacou conducting at least four internal examinations by the time she was five months pregnant in 1991.
Ms Rokebrand received advice that internal examinations are not typical after falling pregnant, unless complications arise.
When questioned by Ms Rokebrand's husband if the massages and internal examinations could stop during her pregnancy, as they didn't think they were necessary, Dr Kyriacou suggested she change doctors.
When the allegations of misconduct were first put to Dr Kyriacou in 2016, he denied them.
Following an assessment in March 2018, psychiatrist Dr Peter McArdle concluded that Dr Kyriacou was "not cognitively well enough to brief his solicitor nor be a capable witness in court".
"When I quizzed him about the allegations he initially said that he couldn't remember any of these people or the allegations and he denied them altogether.
"When I said to him could he remember anything he said if I do anything like that I regret it. I said did you do anything like that? And he said no," said Dr McArdle in a letter to Dr Kyriacou's lawyer.
Dr McArdle said a cognitive examination of Dr Kyriacou revealed signs of a "frontal lobe impairment".
AHPRA is expected to challenge the diagnosis when the matter proceeds to VCAT in January next year.
But his alleged victims wonder if there are other women who have been 'massaged' by Dr Kyriacou, and if so, why AHPRA and the medical board failed to protect them by acting sooner.
chouston@fairfaxmedia.com.au