The 29-year-old is accused of having assaulted a total of 70 patients, including 18 adults. PHOTO: AFP
STOCKHOLM: Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Spanish doctor with sexually abusing 52 child patients, including several counts of aggravated rape between 2015 and 2017.
The 29-year-old is accused of having assaulted a total of 70 patients, including 18 adults, while working in several hospitals and health facilities in Sweden.
Prosecutors claim the doctor, who has been held in custody since December 2017, had examined child patients' genitals in cases when it was "medically irrelevant".
The children were aged between two and 12. In four of the cases, "the crime should be deemed aggravated by (the doctor's) recklessness against the child's young age and abuse of his position," prosecutors said in the charge sheet.
New Swedish law recognises sex without consent as rape
The man, who denies the charges, is also accused of filming some of the assaults, and of possessing child pornography.
The doctor, who also worked for an online health care service allowing clients to consult him via video chats, had allegedly asked parents to show their children's genitals.
"The abuse of the trust generally enjoyed by doctors, and the use of a new technology to commit sexual abuse, is unique and worrying," Fredric Wikman, a lawyer representing several victims, told TT news agency.
The doctor, whose trial starts on September 20, faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted.
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