Legal News
Patients claim compensation after neurosurgeon is jailed for sexual abuse (7 August 2015)
Date: 07/08/2015
Patients who were sexually abused by a leading neurosurgeon are suing the hospital where he worked for compensation.
The Daily Mail reports that spinal surgeon Nafees Hamid worked at both Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Priory hospital.
Birmingham Crown Court jailed the 51-year-old consultant for carrying out sex attacks during examinations.
During a two-month trial, the court heard Hamid was “a good surgeon but not a good man”.
He had been convicted after the jury heard how Hamid had encouraged some of his patients to remove their clothing – and occasionally had removed their clothes himself, without a chaperone being present.
His patients had been referred to him for back and neck problems, but he would then carry out intimate examinations.
Hamid – a father of three from Moseley in Birmingham – had also made “inappropriate sexual remarks” to patients.
He was jailed for 16 years in November 2014, after a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found him guilty of nine sex assaults against six patients between 2012 and 2013. He was acquitted of five counts of sexual assault relating to four other patients.
Hamid was also struck off the medical register and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Expert medical opinion was sought on the examination techniques Hamid used – and he was found to be ignoring General Medical Council guidelines.
In court, Judge Patrick Thomas QC told Hamid that he was the most intelligent man he had ever seen in the dock of a criminal court – but that he had been “brought low” by lust.
He added that Hamid exercised his lust “arrogantly” over patients – and had abused them in “the most extreme breach of trust”. The jury had heard that some of Hamid’s patients were described as “vulnerable” – and had been referred to him for neurosurgical assessment over a two-year period.
Hamid had trained in Pakistan and had moved to the UK in 2000.
He secured a job at the Priory Hospital in Birmingham, where he worked between 2003 and 2013 as a consultant, specialising in disorders affecting the skull, spine and nervous system.
West Midlands Police have said that Hamid may have abused other patients in his care, who have not yet come forward. Police are appealing to victims to report any incidents to the police.
Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors – No win no fee Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims
Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can advise those who have suffered sexual or physical abuse on how to make a no win no fee claim for compensation.
Sexual and physical abuse claims can be made once a police report has been made and a conviction obtained against the perpetrator. Claims can be made through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and in the civil courts.
Duncan Lewis can also advise on historical cases of sexual and physical abuse, including child abuse.
For sympathetic and expert legal advice on no win no fee Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims, contact Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 020 7923 4020.