A pervert doctor who sexually assaulted a former patient has been spared jail.
Doctor Iftikhar Ali, 69, groped his victim’s thigh, repeatedly tried to kiss her on the lips and laughed as he threatened to kill her, a court heard.
The former GP poured the woman a glass of expensive red wine he was given as a gift and boasted about his property in Spain, before launching an attacked at his gated off home in the North Downs, Kent.
Ali stroked his victim’s thigh, sniffed her hair and touched her as they discussed her private life, Maidstone Crown Court was told.
The father-of-two was also accused of asking the former patient to stay over, displaying pink satin lingerie on his bed for her to wear and threatening to end her life if she told her family about his behaviour.
He was handed a suspended sentence after being found guilty of sexual assault and his defence lawyer saying the pensioner “didn’t push it as far as he could have.”
A hearing held earlier this week was told Ali met the victim in a restaurant in July 2016 and he drove her to his gated off home near the picturesque Blue Bell Hill.
Here he offered her expensive wine which he said another patient gave him as a gift.
But the victim took one sip and later poured it away because his behaviour was making her feel uneasy.
The woman said she felt “scared and uncomfortable” and claimed he threatened to kill her if she told anybody, Prosecutor Nina Ellin told the court.
She said her client was “brought to tears” after the unexpected attack, and kept her friends updated by Whatsapp – providing “almost a real-time commentary” of what was happening.
The victim claimed in one message that Ali wanted her to “sleep in his bed”.
It read: “He’s been so weird. I’m scared. So bad. Never meeting him again. I cannot breathe, I’m so scared.
“Hope my phone doesn’t die. He wanted me to sleep in his bed.”
Another said she was scared “of being trapped in the house as he “perpetrated his inappropriate and untoward physical advances on her.”
At the previous hearing, Miss Ellin said: “He began to brag about how wealthy he was, before reaching across and putting his arm around her.
“He pulled her towards him and began stroking her hair. She told him she needed to go to the toilet.
“She was extremely uncomfortable and unsure about what to do. She messaged her friend to tell her she was scared.”
The court heard that the pensioner put his arms around her and leaned in for a kiss when the victim returned from the toilet.
Miss Ellin said: “He continued to try to touch her.
“He pulled up her top to look at her stomach. He kept trying to kiss her but only connected with the side of her lips because she kept pulling away.
“He also told her that if she told her family he would kill her, and then laughed. She was shocked.”
She said the woman was horrified when Ali suggested she stayed the night and froze when she saw what she thought was pink, satin-type lingerie on his bed.
When Ali “got the message,” the woman ran into another room and wept.
But when she did later complain, Ali accused her of stealing money from him.
The court was told that he initially told police his two daughters were at his home but later admitted they were away with his ex-wife.
Ali, who has since retired, also claimed did not drink or have wine in his home.
But when shown a photo the woman had taken of what appeared to be two glasses of wine, he claimed it was berry juice.
Ali denied sexual assault, but was convicted earlier this week after the jury of seven men and five women retired for less than 90-minutes.
Miss Ellin said after the verdict that the victim was particularly vulnerable because of her “personal circumstances”.
She told the court: “She was isolated in the house – locked in.
“It was the middle of the night when she was not able to get away.”
At the previous hearing, Michael Haynes, defending, said there had to be an explanation of why a man of his age behaved in such a way.
He said: “He has had a drink and must have acted out of character.
“He didn’t push it as far as he could have.
“It was a terrible misjudgement on his behalf after having an unfamiliar amount of alcohol.”
Ali, from Chatham, Kent, was handed 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years for one count of sexual assault.
Ms Ellin said after the case: “Sometimes just an admission from an attacker is better than nothing.”
Recorder Laws also ordered a 25-day rehabilitation program for the disgraced doctor.
By Daniel Hammond & Keith Hunt
