General practitioner Wee Teong Boo was sentenced to 10 years' jail yesterday for sexually assaulting and molesting a 23-year-old patient at his Bedok clinic during two medical examinations, a month apart, in 2015.
Wee, 68, was also ordered to pay compensation of $1,200 for therapy sessions to help the victim cope with the psychological effects of the sexual abuse.
Citing the victim's testimony during the trial, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said the woman experienced a "purgatory of confusion, anger and emptiness" in the aftermath of the sexual assault.
The victim told the court she was "living (like) the walking dead" for a long time.
"I cannot register why, why is it that (out of) so many patients, I am the one being picked for this?" she said. "Why is it a doctor can become a beast overnight?"
She testified she does not see male doctors any more and cannot accept physical intimacy with men.
Wee did not display any emotion in court. He maintains his innocence and will be appealing against his conviction, his lawyer Edmond Pereira told the court.
The doctor was originally charged with one count each of rape and molestation. He fought the charges in a trial that ran between April and October last year.
The High Court on Monday cleared him of the rape charge, convicting him instead of sexual assault by penetration, based on the doctor's own admission that he had inserted his ungloved fingers into the patient, using saliva as a lubricant.
This was after Justice Chua Lee Ming accepted medical evidence that Wee was suffering from erectile dysfunction at the time of the offences.
The judge said there was reasonable doubt as to whether penile penetration could have taken place as alleged.
A spokesman for the Attorney-General's Chambers said the prosecution will be appealing against the acquittal on the rape charge and the sentence meted out by the court.
The DPP had called for a total sentence of 12 years and seven months' jail. This included an additional three-month term in lieu of caning, as Wee is more than 50 years old.
