Jury sent out to decide guilt of TV doctor accused of indecently assaulting Black Country patients in the 1990s
After a week of listening to the details of alleged sexual assaults on patients over 25 years ago jurors are deciding the fate of TV doctor Aivar Bracka.
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The trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court involves five counts of indecent assault against three patients, one who was a 12-year-old child at the time.
The former consultant was one of the most successful surgeons in his field when the alleged indecent assaults happened at Wordsley Hospital in the late 1990s.
After inventing a new medical procedure which is now common practice across the world and stints on TV Bracka's waiting list was crammed with people across the country who wanted his expertise.
However, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard the testimony of three patients, one who was just 12 when he was examined alone by Bracka, who claim he crossed the patient doctor boundary in a disturbing way.
All three claimed he showed them pornography, tried to masturbate them and one described the consultant undressing himself and placing his penis in the shocked man's hand.
However, taking the stand himself, the 73-year-old refuted the allegations claimed he did nothing which was not warranted in the medical examination. HIs lawyer Anthony Haycroft KC challenged the witnesses memory, mental state and motivations for alleging the assaults.
Bracka, of Balmoral Road, Wordsley, worked for the now defunct Wordsley Hospital for the majority of his career before a shot spell at Russells Hall Hospital until 2010.
Judge John Butterfield KC told the jurors to deliberate each count on its merits and they can return a mixture of guilty and not guilty verdicts. He spent over two hours summing up the evidence and directed the jurors how to reach a verdict if in doubt.
He said: "The question is did the defendant sexually masturbate the patient or medically examined him by touching him, if the answer is yes, then the verdict will be guilty, if no then not guilty."
The jury have to deliberate four counts of indecent assault against a person aged 16 or older and one count of indecent assault against a child.
Bracka denies all counts.
