Hospital doctor facing five counts of assault denies being ‘sexual predator’

An emergency department doctor has denied sexually assaulting two male patients on a different ward, claiming he was carrying out legitimate examinations to build up points for an appraisal.

Prosecutors allege Tayabb Shah “strayed” into an acute ward to commit five sexual assaults on two vulnerable victims over a two-week period in the autumn of 2020.

The married father-of-two, of no fixed address but formerly of Sherwood, Nottingham, denies committing the offences while working as a junior locum doctor and on a break at the city’s Queen’s Medical Centre.

Giving evidence to jurors on Thursday, Shah said he was of Pakistani nationality and had studied for his medical degree in China before initially working in the United States.

He also told Nottingham Crown Court that after being employed at a hospital in Galway, Ireland, he began work in Nottingham in January 2020.

Answering questions from defence lawyer Marie Spenwyn, the 39-year-old said he had not touched either patient’s private parts and had not added to their medical records because he “thought it would be no big deal”.

Explaining part of his reasoning for treating patients away from his own ward, Shah told the court: “This was my first year in the UK.

“My appraisal was approaching in the second week of December.

“I discussed it with a consultant in the ED – they did tell me that you needed to have a certain amount of points.”

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Ian West, Shah rejected the assertion that he was a “sexual predator” who had deliberately targeted two vulnerable people in attacks that “had nothing to do with continuing education”.

After conceding he had not entered any details into the two patients’ notes, Shah claimed he had kept his own record of the assessments in a notebook.

Asked by Mr West where the notebook, if it existed, was, Shah responded: “I don’t have it right now with me.

“I was moving and I just can’t find it. I lost it somewhere.”

After being invited to further explain his failure to add to the patients’ medical records, Shah added: “My mind was thinking about the assessments that I was doing. It never came across my mind.”

Mr West went on to ask Shah if he could suggest a reason why a patient would tell a “career-destroying” lie about him.

Shah told the jury: “I don’t know. I wish I knew the reason.”

The medic then suggested that one of the complaints could be linked to a remark made to him about “foreign doctors”.

Mr West asked him: “Is there nothing you won’t say or allege to try to get away with this?”

Shah replied: “I am not that type of person.”

The trial continues.