Dr Farouk Patel pictured outside Leicester Crown Court, where he was cleared of sexually assaulting a patient
A GP has been cleared of sexually abusing a male patient during a medical examination.
Dr Farouk Patel had been accused of intimately massaging the man’s bottom and groin during an appointment for a bad back in his consultation room at the Belgrave Medical Centre in Leicester.
The 35-year-old wept with relief when he was found not guilty of two sexual assaults on the man and causing him to engage in sexual activity without consent.
After the hearing at Leicester Crown Court, Dr Patel thanked his wife and family for supporting him.
He said in a statement: ‘I am very grateful to the jury for their careful consideration of the evidence in my case, and to my family, in particular my wife, for standing by me during this difficult time.’
The alleged offences were said to have been carried out by Dr Patel, a married father, on July 25, 2016.
The patient, who is in his 30s, claimed he made an appointment to see the doctor because of a bad back.
He claimed he was asked to get on the couch to be examined and told to ‘relax and pull his top up’.
He alleged indecent acts then took place but he was too ‘terrified’ to stop it from happening.
Dr Patel told police after his arrest that the patient had also complained of a groin problem, so he carried out a routine examination in a professional manner and said nothing of a sexual nature ever took place.
Dr Patel had been accused of intimately massaging the man’s bottom and groin during an appointment for a bad back at the Belgrave Medical Centre in Leicester (pictured)
The complainant denied mentioning a groin problem to Dr Patel.
But when he visited a GP at another surgery two days later, medical notes showed he was complaining of pain in both his lower back and groin, the court heard.
The jury was out for three hours and 49 minutes before reaching not guilty verdicts. Dr Patel, from Leicester, did not give evidence in court.
In admissions read out during the trial agreed between the prosecution and defence, he accepted that he previously had consensual homosexual encounters in his consultation room.
He admitted to similar encounters at the Merlyn Vaz Medical Centre, in Leicester’s Spinney Hills, where he also worked.
Those unrelated incidents were always outside of surgery hours and had not involved any patients, the court was told.