Doctor denies allegations he sexually assaulted patient

A Winnipeg doctor took the witness stand Wednesday and denied allegations he repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman under his care.

The 66-year-old accused, who CBC is not identifying by name, is charged with one count of sexual assault for offences alleged to have been committed between 1991 and 1994.

The now 44-year-old alleged victim told court Tuesday she had just recently immigrated from Central America in 1991 when she visited the doctor about irregularities in her menstrual cycle.

The woman said she was a virgin and the accused prescribed her birth control pills. She said the accused told her she needed to make monthly follow-up visits. That's when, she alleges, he digitally stimulated her vagina and touched her breasts.

• Doctor accused of repeated sex assaults on patient

The woman said the doctor told her the examinations were necessary to ensure she was ovulating.

During the woman's final visit with the doctor in 1994, she allegeshe unzipped his pants and tried to have sex with her.

The accused testified he never had any reason to perform a gynecological exam on the woman, given her medical complaints and the fact she was not sexually active.

"She was a virgin, it was not necessary to do that," he said.

The accused said the alleged victim's claim he told her he needed to examine her vagina to make sure she was ovulating made no sense.

"The birth control pill is to avoid ovulation and regulate the (menstrual) cycle," he said. "It's not true."

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The accused denied allegations he later visited the woman at work and tried to woo her with promises of a Caribbean vacation and a car.

Under cross-examination, the accused confirmed the woman's claim they were both guests at a wedding in 1998, but denied an allegation he tried to talk to her.

The accused said he had no independent recollection of the woman as a patient and relied on a prior police statement and testimony before the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba to refresh his memory.

Much of the accused's testimony focused on what records had been kept of the alleged victim's appointments and medical history.

The accused testified many of the woman's visits were as a walk-in patient and would not have been documented in the daily clinic log. He said the woman's medical charts were destroyed in 2004, 10 years after her last visit.