Patients Prey For Rapist Doctor

The Age

Tuesday March 4, 2008

Sarah-Jane Collins

A DOCTOR who raped or indecently assaulted 14 patients over a six-year period was "looking after his own pernicious needs", a Victorian County Court judge said yesterday.

Dermatologist David Wee Kin Tong, 40, pleaded guilty to seven counts of rape and seven of indecent assault committed at his Clifton Hill, Malvern and Preston practices between October 2001 and March 2007.

Despite two of his victims complaining to the Medical Practitioners Board in 2004 and 2005, he was allowed to continue practising and did not stop offending, prosecutor Claire Quin said.

For many victims it was their first time seeing a skin specialist, and they did not know what to expect, she said.

She told Judge Geoffrey Chettle that Tong requested that the women submit to a full body examination and in most cases asked them to strip and lie on an examination table.

He felt their genitals and in some cases took photos of them naked without consent, using his mobile phone.

On some occasions he asked the victims to pose naked for "body mapping" photographs that could help with their diagnosis and then took pictures of their genitals and naked bodies.

Ms Quin said many of the victims had trusted Tong because he was a doctor.

Some noticed Tong sweating, shaking and panting during examinations.

The offences were discovered when one client told a friend, a police officer, of her concerns.

Police searched Tong's home and found 120 explicit photographs of naked women, including patients.

Tong was stopped by customs officers in May 2007 at Melbourne Airport. A search revealed 27 explicit photos of eight of his clients on his mobile phone, taken without their knowledge during examinations.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, one victim said she was angry that the medical board had not taken her complaint more seriously.

Judge Chettle said Tong's behaviour reflected poorly on "the male race as a whole".

Jane Dixon, SC, for Tong, said her client had been under a lot of pressure because his father, who had had terminal cancer for nine years, died in 2006.

She said he had trouble relating to women because of his strict Pentecostal upbringing. He had had only one serious relationship at 21. It had ended badly and had devastated him.

The plea hearing continues today.

© 2008 The Age

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