Sperm Donor Prof Sentenced For Groping Recipient Of 'AI-Plus'

A University College London professor, who has fathered 58 children via his "one stop shop" insemination service, received a suspended prison sentence yesterday for molesting a wannabe single mum during his donations.

Professor Gennadij Raivich, 52, a perinatal neuroscientist - who also has three children of his own - coined the phrase 'Artificial Insemination Plus', which promised 'extras' to donors - namely oral sex.

The victim, 31, travelled from her Cambridgeshire village to his London home and agreed 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.

He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years, ordered to pay £5,000 costs and to sign the sex offenders register for ten years and is subject to an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order banning him from being a  sperm donor or carrying a speculum.

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, a maths teacher and a lecturer, some of whom had two and in one case three of his children via Artificial Insemination (AI).

Workplace Arrest: Institute For Woman's Health

Judge Deva Pillay told him: "Publicly it is said you were an internationally recognised and respected scientific researcher, however in private you led a more questionable lifestyle.

"Using the pseudonym Frank Qualman you surfed the internet offering your services as a sperm donor  to women desperate to conceive.

"These were informal and devoid of the usual regulations and safeguards and the Crown say you exploited your anonymity and your clients' desperation to conceive to obtain sexual gratification."

Raivich first me the victim on September 5, 2012. "You spoke to her about a procedure known as AI-plus whereby the recipient of the sperm would physically stimulate you, the donor, to produce sperm.

"You made it plain to her that if she did not provide AI-plus she would not receive a donation of sperm and therefore she agreed to do so."

However, Raivich ignored the victim's insistence not to touch or fondle her elsewhere during the sessions. "You were found to have sexually rubbed her clitoris and grabbed her breast.

"I find there was a breach of trust her and the complainant was a vulnerable woman in that she was desperate to conceive.

'IV-Plus' HQ: Rashleigh House

"There were also elements of exploitation, you implying you were a registered medical practitioner within the jurisdiction.

"Having regard  to the fact the complainant consented to oral sex and having regard to the loss of your reputation and employment in my judgement I am able to suspend the sentence."

Raivich's lawyer William Clegg QC said: "The victim was engaging in consensual oral sex with the defendant at the time. She was a lady that had agreed full intercourse with donors in attempts to become pregnant."

He showed Judge Deva Pillay an article from magazine 'Take a Break' which the victim sold her story to. "She's abandoned her anonymity and made what capital she can out of her position.

"He's been forced to resign his chair at UCH and is unemployed. He lost a well paid and prestigious job. That indeed is a tragedy in itself.

"He is acknowledged as a world authority on trauma to the brain in children and in lesser respects adults and intends to return to his family in Germany when these proceedings are concluded and re-train in another area.

"She was clearly a very willing participant in oral sex, which reduces, to some extent, the gravity of the offence."

Prosecutor Mr. Tom Wilkins told the jury at the start of the trial: "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."