Ms Sloane said it was the Crown case that the digital penetration whilst standing was done with an “intention to obtain sexual gratification” and Dr Reid “departed from accepted medical practice”.
Ms Sloane acknowledged that documents written by the woman to Dr Reid and tendered in court – a Christmas card dated 2011, a thank you letter from October 2012 and another letter from March 2015 – “at first blush … might be seen to be unusual in the circumstances of this case”.
The prosecutor said the documents and the act of writing them “must be assessed in light of” the complainant’s evidence that Dr Reid had told her he had “patented a technique that would cure her problems” and “that he was the only one doing it”.
She said the judge should accept the woman had presented to Dr Reid for treatment of longstanding pain, wanted him “to continue to help her” and “was desperate for him to help her fix her problems”.
In her testimony, the woman said she had been referred to Dr Reid by a friend who described him as a “genius that invented a fantastic method”.
He first performed surgery on the woman in 2009, which made her vagina feel “blocked”. She said after a 2014 appointment, Dr Reid told her that he “couldn’t think of anything else he could do”.
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She said she was left “traumatised” by the alleged conduct at eight appointments between 2010 and 2014, and she eventually saw a different gynaecologist in 2017.
But Ms Francis argued that “a surgeon cannot patent an operation”, and the Crown had relied upon it to establish “there might be some explanation” for the letters and Christmas card sent by the woman to her client.
The court heard the woman made a claim on Dr Reid’s insurance of $5.125 million, being $4 million for “loss of life” from medical treatment performed and $1.125 million for four-and-a-half years of alleged improper conduct or abuse.
“It would be quite wrong to reason that because a monetary claim was made against the accused’s insurance, that [improper conduct/abuse] claim was false or wrongly made,” the prosecutor said.
Ms Francis said despite the woman’s claim to the insurer that she “became so introverted she avoided friends”, she took holidays including three months in Italy, which “undermines her credibility”.
“The complainant’s account was very difficult to trace in terms of any reliable narrative,” she said, arguing the woman had given dishonest evidence, provided dishonest representations to the insurer and “manipulated the evidence that has been provided to investigators”.
Acting Judge Allen has reserved his judgment.
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Woman sent Christmas card to gynaecologist after alleged sexual assault, court told
Source: Philippines Alive
