Consultant paediatrician Tariq Bhatti, 68, was a “well renowned” doctor at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, where he is accused of groping the girls between their legs.
Prosecutor Laurence Imrie told Guildford Crown Court: “The defendant worked as a consultant paediatrician and the complainants were his patients and they were children at the time.”
Delhi-educated Bhatti, of Beechwood Close, Weybridge has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault by penetration regarding the six year-old between January 1 and December 31 2006.
He has also pleaded not guilty to assault by penetration in relation to the eleven year-old between January 1 and December 31, 2011.
The six year-old saw Bhatti at Ashford Hospital with a urinary infection twenty years ago.
“She was asked to sit on the hospital bed and Mr Bhatti pulled a curtain to block the view of her mother,” explained the prosecutor.
Without using surgical gloves the consultant placed his hand between the girl’s legs and she described a feeling of “being pulled apart.”
“It caused her distress and she started crying and her mother says she was lying down and Mr Bhatti had his back to her and she could not see what he was doing, but her daughter had a worried look on her face.”
Afterwards the girl told her mother she did not want to see the consultant again, however there was another appointment.
“She was assaulted again,” Mr Imrie told the jury. “Her mother tried to comfort her.”
Now a woman in her mid-twenties she told the trial: “Everything I said was accurate as I remember.”
When cross-examined she admitted not knowing the name of the doctor she saw at the time, only that he was “non-white” and was never asked to attend an identity parade.
Her mother also gave evidence and said: “He did not say what he was going to do, but he was well-renowned and I just trusted him.”
She said her daughter was reluctant to attend a second appointment. “She said: ‘I don’t want him to touch me. He touched my bits.’
“In her mid-teens she was having mental health issues and a bit of a breakdown and she threw this at me again and decided she needed to see someone about it and saw her GP.”
The eleven year-old girl had a blood disorder and saw Bhatti while accompanied by her mother.
“She was asked to sit on the hospital bed and take her clothes down,” explained Mr Imrie. The consultant then molested her between her legs, said the prosecutor.
When questioned by police Bhatti insisted he would always wear surgical gloves for such examinations and denied sexually assaulting the girls.
“He denied the allegations and said he does not have a sexual interest in children.”
The jury were told they will also hear evidence that the examinations Bhatti conducted “were not medically justified.”
The eleven year-old girl had a blood disorder that caused leukaemia-like symptoms.
Now a woman in her mid-twenties, she gave a recorded statement to police in 2021 that was played to the jury.
“He pulled the curtain around and checked my groin area for lymph nodes, which could have been done with my underwear on,” she told the trial.
“He was pressing around my groin area. He did not tell me what he was doing and I didn’t understand why and he was not wearing any gloves.
“I did not report it or anything and this year (2021) I told my parents and my dad’s reaction is why I reported it to the NHS and I looked up that he was still practising.”
The woman had a meeting with NHS representatives and reviewed the notes Bhatti made of his examination of her.
“We went through them and he did not note that he made an internal examination.
“I remember not wanting to go back to see him and remember telling my mum something like: ‘I don’t like him,’ and her saying: ’Neither do I’.”
Trial continues………….
