Dr Amre Maglad, 51, a highly-qualified specialist in restorative dentistry, endodontics and prosthodontics deliberately placed his rucksack and iPhone in the corner of the room at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.
The nurses were horrified to discover the phone was recording them and two months later two of them have not returned to the hospital and all three feel “degraded and violated.”
Sudan-born Dr Maglad, of Broadfield Meadows, Kenton Bank Foot, Newcastle-upon-Tyne pleaded guilty to four counts of observing a person doing a private act for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification on January 28 and 29.
Four female nurses were recorded - one in her underwear is still unidentified - and the remaining three all attended the sentencing hearing at Bromley Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Dr Maglad, who spent two nights in custody after his arrest on the day his secret recording was discovered, remained doubled-over in the dock - out of sight of the three nurses - throughout the ninety-minute hearing.
He is a Master of Clinical Dentistry and a member of Edinburgh’s Royal College of Surgeons and Glasgow’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons and has worked in hospitals and clinics all over the UK.
Prosecutor Jessica Kang told court: “Three nurses were in the female changing room and one of them noticed a rucksack in the corner and in the mesh pocket was an iPhone.
“The phone was pointing towards the female changing area and the nurse realised she had seen the same rucksack placed in the same position a few weeks earlier.
“She looked closer and saw that the phone was recording and informed her manager that day.”
The rucksack was identified as belonging to Dr Maglad and he was arrested the same day on January 29.
“Police saw that all three nurse victims had been recorded on the phone, plus a recording of a fourth unidentified nurse in her underwear.”
The consultant dentist initially tried to talk his way out of trouble.
“He suggested there was a hole in his rucksack and the whole incident was a mistake. He refused to provide his PIN to officers so they could unlock the phone.
“He said he would have deleted any recordings without looking at them,” added Ms Kang.
The first victim stepped into the witness box directly opposite shame-faced Dr Maglad and told the magistrates: “I have lost faith in the men around me and feel unsafe.”
She told the court she has been negatively effected “emotionally and psychologically” and is now reluctant to leave her home and struggles to sleep at night.
“He should not have access to images of my body and I fear there are other victims,” she said. “He has destroyed my confidence and stripped me of my trust.
“We all feel violated and are sickened these videos were viewed for sexual gratification. He thought he had the right to abuse his power.
“He is haunting me in my nightmares,” added the married nurse, who has not returned to Queen Mary’s. “I feel violated and dirty and do not want to be touched or looked at.”
The second nurse, who identified the rucksack, said in her victim impact statement she still feels guilty about failing to raise the alarm a few weeks earlier.
“I felt violated at my place at work, where I should have felt safe,” she said, adding she is still stressed and anxious.
“Dr Maglad was trusted in his powerful position as an elite physician.”
The third victim wrote: “It make me feel sick that he has videos of my body,” adding that she has “lost all faith” in male colleagues.
She said that she is “tearful and completely numb, feels constantly sick, disgusted and violated,” and has not returned to the hospital.
Dr Maglad’s lawyer John Howey told the court the iPhone’s password had been forwarded to the police and the dentist’s iCloud account could be made available for inspection.
On February 24 the General Dental Council (GDC) suspended him for eighteen months - the first step in a process that will likely result in the consultant being struck off.
“He has got no previous convictions, he is remorseful, is of positive character and has a background of exemplary conduct,” said the lawyer.
“He has had a very stressful two-month wait since pleading guilty, waiting for the probations’s pre-sentence report to be prepared.
“He has taken steps to address some of the issues he is facing and has self-referred himself and paid a not insignificant amount of money to go on that course.
“There is a history of depression and he had medical treatment in relation to that some years ago.”
Dr Maglad originally studied in Khartoum and qualified as a dentist in 1996.
“We all know how valued this profession is in this country and that there is a shortage of dentists.
“His employment was terminated immediately and the GDC is are aware and he is currently suspended.
“He will be struck-off. There is no shadow of doubt about that as the GDC are one of the toughest professional bodies.
“Even if he is allowed to stay on the register he will not get a new job with this conviction.
“He was working three jobs. Queen Mary’s, King’s College Hospital and another job. These were multiple roles at different sites with management responsibilities.
“Professional colleagues raised concerns with Dr Maglad about his welfare, but he did not appreciate the state he was in and it was only when he was arrested and everything came crashing down that he appreciated the state he was in.
“He found himself isolated from his family home in Newcastle while he was in London by himself,” explained Mr Howey.
“Consultancy roles are few and far between so he came to London for a number of years, living by himself and working many, many hours and going home only once a month.
“He was under huge amounts of stress, added to by the news relatives in Sudan had to flee the troubled country and are now in Egypt.
“This all created a perfect storm. He was isolated and there was a complete lack of intimacy with his wife and he reverted to pornography.
“He has told me he does not think the pre-sentence report shows how remorseful he is.”
Dr Maglad was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for eighteen months; must complete forty days of rehabilitation and pay each of the three nurses £500 compensation.
He must also sign the sex offenders register for seven years and was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £154 victim surcharge.
Bench chairwoman Mrs H East told Dr Maglad: “Many people experience periods of stress, but they do not seek to record nurses taking their clothes off.
“Hospital hygiene means they undress and change into scrubs and you planned to film these female colleagues and now they do not feel safe working with male staff.
“You have destroyed their trust and they are having counselling for your activity and this will probably stay with them for a long time, perhaps years.
“You planned this and deliberately targeted them changing in their safe space and this was not a one-off offence.”
Before leaving the dock Dr Maglad announced: “I would like to say how sorry I am for all this.”
