Anaesthetist charged with sexual assault fronts Toowoomba court

A 59-year-old anaesthetist is accused of sexually touching three women in their 20s over a three-month period while they were unconscious.

The anaesthetist has been charged with three counts each of sexual assault and recording in breach of privacy.

An anaesthetist accused of sexually assaulting and photographing women who were unconscious in the hospital theatre has had his charges mentioned for the first time in a Toowoomba court.

The 59-year-old from Mount Ommaney in Brisbane but who also worked in Toowoomba was not required to attend the mention of the matters in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

He has been charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of “observations or recordings in breach of privacy” as the charges read on the court documents.

The accused, who cannot be named unless committed to trial on the charges, has not been required as yet to enter any pleas to the charges.

Police have alleged the anaesthetist inappropriately touched three women in their 20s while they were unconscious between November last year and February this year.

Detectives had asked anyone who believed they may have been affected to come forward.

In April, the Queensland Office of the Health Ombudsman imposed conditions on the doctor’s registration with the Medical Board of Australia, ordering him “not to have contact with female patients”.

It also ordered the specialist to provide written confirmation that his employers had been notified of the allegations and subsequent charges.

No particular details of the police allegations have as yet been aired in court.

Solicitor Matt Gemmell, of Toowoomba law firm Bouchier Khan Lawyers, acting as town agent for the man’s Brisbane based law firm of Fisher Dore Lawyers, told the court the accused was on bail and in regular contact with his solicitors.

Mr Gemmell said he had been asked by his instructing firm to seek an adjournment as a submission had been made on behalf of the accused to the prosecution on one of the six charges.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Tim Hutton said the prosecution was awaiting a response from the arresting officer in regard to that submission.

Sgt Hutton asked for a three-week adjournment.

Magistrate Graham Lee therefore remanded the accused man on bail and adjourned the case for mention back in the same court on August 31 with the accused’s appearance in court on that day excused.