Monday 28 July 2014

Prolific Sperm-Donor Prof Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting One Recipient


A UCL professor, who has fathered 58 children via his "one stop shop" insemination service, is facing imprisonment after molesting a wannabe single mum who used his services.

Professor Gennadij Raivich, 51, a perinatal neuroscientist at University College London - who also has three children of his own - coined the phrase 'Artificial Insemination Plus', which promised sexual 'extras' to donors - namely oral sex.

The victim, 31, travelled from her Cambridgeshire village to his London home and had to repeatedly perform oral sex on him to obtain the samples she craved, Blackfriars Crown Court heard during the two-week trial.

Raivich, of Rashleigh House, Thanet Street, St. Pancras was convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting the woman, who was groped between the legs and had her breasts touched, and he was released on bail until September 30 for a pre-sentence report.

This conviction can be reported for the first time after a Contempt of Court Act order was lifted after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced they would not be pursuing a retrial in relation to eight more counts the jury could not agree on.

"The CPS made the decision not to proceed with a retrial on any charges the jury couldn't agree on," said William Clegg QC, defending.

The two other complainants, both 26 year-old lesbians, also told the court the defendant abused them, but the jury were unable to reach verdicts in relation to one count against the first and seven counts against the second.

Raivich carried a "donation kit" containing a dvd player, which he watched pornography on, rubber gloves and a speculum and pipette and was happy to carry-out home visits.

Fifteen satisfied female 'customers' from all over the country spoke in his defence, including a police officer, maths teacher and lecturer, some of whom had two and in one case three of his children via Artificial Insemination (AI).

Prosecutor Mr. Tom Wilkins told the jury: "You have to ask yourselves what kind of woman agrees to meet a complete stranger, they do not even know his real name, for AI.

"Someone who is desperate and is prepared to put up with the potential embarrassment and humiliation and who have kept the details from their friends and families.

"A perfect victim for sexual assault, someone unlikely to complain.

"Compare the women to this defendant, someone who has traded on the fact he is a doctor and paraded his scientific knowledge, impressing them with his apparent expertise.

"What kind of man embarks on a breeding programme to have as many children as possible?

"You will have to ask yourselves if he knows as much as he claims.

"You may feel there is a high degree of narcism in what he has done and is sexually motivated in some of these transactions.

"He provided a one stop shop for women who wanted semen. All were desperate to have a baby."

Raivich's service was informal and did not conform to the guidelines of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and he often used the pseudonym 'Frank Qualman'.

Raivich told the victim that her chances of becoming pregnant were increased if she orgasmed during the insemination process.

The prosecution accept Raivich is a qualified doctor in Germany, but has always been an academic scientist and has never practiced medicine and is not registered with the General Medical Council.

"On the websites he advertises his services as a sperm diner and represents himself as a: 'Medical doctor based in Central London' providing a service called Intra-Cervical Insemination or ICI."

In a video-recorded police interview played to the jury the woman said: "He kept asking for AI Plus because it would make things quicker.

"He laid sofa cushions on the floor and was taking his trousers off and said he wanted AI Plus because it would be quick and he did not have time to provide the sample himself.

"With my baby brain I agreed to AI Plus and he took his underwear off and lay on the floor and I performed AI Plus and the donation was ready in thirty seconds.

"While I was doing AI Plus he asked me to take my clothes off so he could touch me.

"I said I did not mind doing AI Plus, but did not want to do anything else, but he put his hand on my bottom over my jeans then kept trying to put his hands down my waistband and up my top." 

Raivich also groped her between her legs during the sessions. "He told her an orgasm would help her conceive," added Mr. Wilkins.

"She told him three or four times not to touch her there, but he went ahead regardless and now he says he can't recall stimulating her in this way.

"He was not the altruistic donor, but someone who is sexually-motivated. 

"She was desperate for a baby and returned a week later for a donation in return for performing oral sex on him and felt she had to put up with it, she had been trying for a baby for a year."

The first lesbian complainant saw Raivich on February 27, 2012 when "wholly gratuitously and without warning" he inserted two to three of this fingers into her vagina for three to five seconds, the jury were told.

The third victim was visited twice by Raivich at the home she shared with her lesbian partner in Great Yarmouth and she told the court things started badly when she walked into the living-room during the defendant's 'preparation'.

"When I walked in his trousers were undone, which made me feel uncomfortable and I turned up the tv for him. His button and zip were undone and I sort of ran out of the room quite fast back upstairs.

"I was waiting for him  to turn around before I got undressed. He told me not to be shy, that I had nothing to worry about and stood there with a scary smile on his face, glaring at me.

He then lifted up my top and started to grope my boobs. I just froze, he hadn't done it the previous time so I knew it was not right.

"He lifted my t-shirt up and moved my bra away from my breasts. He was just groping my boobs, squeezing them and smiling.

"He was looking at me, just smiling, it was like something out of a horror movie the way he was looking at me.

"I pushed my top down and he continued to smile at me and started to push his fingers inside me, which again I knew was wrong. He hadn't previously done this.

"He then pushed down on my clitoris, he just smiled at me. I just wanted him to get out of the bedroom, I wanted it to be over, my whole body just froze."

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