TORONTO - Lawyers for a Toronto anaesthesiologist jailed for sexually assaulting 21 sedated women during surgeries argue their client should be granted a new trial because the judge presiding over his case allegedly ignored evidence suggesting the assaults could not physically have been carried out unnoticed.
Dr. George Doodnaught, 67, is appealing his November 2013 conviction, for which he was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Doodnaught was found guilty of assaulting the women, who ranged from 25 to 75 years old, while they were semi-conscious at the North York General Hospital.
The trial judge found the anaesthesiologist had, among other things, inserted his penis into patients' mouths, used some for masturbation, and sexually fondled others over a four-year period.
During trial, the defence argued that the women had hallucinated or misremembered the assaults as a result of the medication they were given, and that the crowded nature of the operating rooms made it impossible to commit such a crime unseen.
In his appeal, Doodnaught's lawyers argue the trial judge overlooked any evidence that would challenge the reliability of the women's testimony or the feasibility of the assaults.
