A FORMER Bracknell GP ‘indecently assaulted seven patients on the pretext of carrying out medical examinations', a court has heard.

Stephen Cox, now of Marton, Welshpool in Shropshire, is on trial after being charged with eight counts of indecent assault on seven different women at a Warfield surgery in the 1990s.

The 62-year-old worked at Ralph Rides Surgery in Bracknell, which is now known as the Waterfield Practice, more than two decades ago. During this time, it is alleged he committed a range of sexual offences.

He denies all charges.

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These offences, which are alleged to have happened between October 1990 and September 1997, include:

  • Three cases of touching a woman underneath her bra between October 1990 and February 1993
  • Touching a woman’s nipples on June 24, 1991.
  • Stroking a woman’s thighs on December 13, 1991
  • Pressing his genitals onto the hand of a woman on a day between June 29, 1993 and December 31, 1994 and later touching her breasts and nipples.
  • Digital penetration of a third woman on a day between June 1, 1997, and September 13, 1997.

The trial, which is expected to last about three weeks, started today (February 27) at Reading Crown Court.

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Prosecuting, Tahir Khan said: “The prosecution says over a number of years he indecently assaulted seven of his patients and we state he did this on the pretext of carrying out medical examinations on these victims who were coincidentally all woman.

“It’s likely we say he gained some sexual pleasure from touching these women in inappropriate ways on their bodies. We say these examinations were not medically justified.”

Mr Khan told the jury that Cox had joined the surgery as a junior doctor in about 1986. He continued to say Cox told police he had qualified in 1983 so by the time he was joining the surgery he had been qualified for about three years.

“Records from the surgery confirm that the defendant remained at this practice for about 10 years but possibly longer,” said Mr Khan. “And it’s between these years we say he committed these offences he’s charged with.”

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The court heard that Cox was first interviewed by police in October 2020 to which he denied all the allegations against him.

A second interviewed in May the following year saw Cox continue to deny the allegations he was later charged with.

Cox, who appeared in court wearing a grey suit, could be seen shaking his head throughout the prosecution opening and making notes in his own folder.