GP jailed for slew of indecent assaults against female patients
7 October 2024, 15:49
A GP has been jailed for 22 years after being found guilty of indecently assaulting women as he carried out routine medical examinations on them.
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Stephen Cox, 64, was convicted of 12 counts of indecent assault and acquitted of four after a four-week retrial at Reading Crown Court.
He denied all 16 counts of indecent assault against seven different women while working in Bracknell in Berkshire, between 1988 and 1997.
Cox used the cover of carrying out "routine medical examinations", in assaulting the women, Chris Hewertson, prosecuting, said previously.
But he was in fact "motivated by sexual pleasure by the deliberate touching of certain areas of the body" and took "sexual gratification" from the encounters.
His actions were not medically justified, Mr Hewertson said, calling his conduct "inappropriate, wrong, criminal."
Dr Cox said the women were mistaken in their allegations and that the examinations would have been medically justified.
A jury was discharged in a previous trial, at the same court, when it failed to reach verdicts on seven counts of indecent assaults on women in March 2023.
He was cleared of another count of indecent assault at the time.
Some of his victims came forward decades after Cox abused them after hearing or reading about police action against him on the radio and in local newspapers.
Police said officers are keeping an "open mind" over other possible assaults.
Cox also worked in Wokingham, Burton-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Derby, Leicestershire, Telford and West Sussex.
Det Con Sara Di Giorgio, of Thames Valley Police, said the jury had come to "absolutely the correct conclusion" on his offending in Bracknell.
“Cox’s patients had every right to feel safe and to trust him, but he completely betrayed this trust, embarking on a series of indecent assaults which his victims have had to live with for many decades.
“He has never displayed an ounce of remorse for what he had done, and has constantly denied any wrong-doing, this despite a number of women, none of whom know each other, coming forward to report what he had done to them," she added.
“He is a prolific and predatory sex offender hiding beneath the mask of being a trusted doctor, and I hope that the outcome of this case will give the victims some justice.
“I would like to praise each and every one of his victims for coming forward and showing the bravery, not only to report the offences, but also to testify in court."
It can now be reported that Cox was barred from practising as a doctor for nine months in 2010 after regulators concluded he acted inappropriately and in a "sexually motivated" way with multiple other women while working at a practice in West Sussex.
Instances included placing a hand inside a patient's bra during an examination and pushing or thrusting his body against her bottom.
In another incident, it was found he had told her that he was "making the most" of injecting her because "it's not very often I get to touch women's bottoms", or words to that effect.
