Doc who sexually assaulted sedated patients ‘not credible:’ parole board says
TORONTO — An anesthesiologist who sexually assaulted 21 sedated women during their surgeries shows little insight into the trauma he inflicted on them, the Parole Board of Canada said in denying his bid for early release.
In written reasons released this week, the board repeatedly noted that Dr. George Doodnaught showed little insight into his crimes committed at a north Toronto hospital.
“You deny committing the offences and blamed the anesthetics for the patients’ belief that they had been assaulted,” the parole board said. “In some cases, you manipulated the victims into believing that they had initiated the sexual contact or that they had engaged you in explicit sexual conversation.”
Doodnaught, 70, was arrested in March 2010 and given a 10-year sentence in 2013 for sexually assaulting women 25 to 75 years old over a four-year period. Evidence at trial was that the upper bodies of his semi-conscious victims were shielded by draping, allowing him to sexually assault them in various ways unseen by the rest of the surgical team. His appeal of conviction and sentence was dismissed.