A retired doctor convicted of sex offences against 47 women over more than three decades has been imprisoned for 12 years.
Krishna Singh, 72, was convicted of 54 charges, mainly of indecent and sexual assault, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow which ended last month.
The crimes occurred between January 1984 and 2018, mainly at a medical practice in North Lanarkshire but also at a police office and a hospital accident and emergency department.
The married GP, who was awarded an MBE for medical services, also targeted girls under 16 and pregnant women who went to his surgery in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
His actions included kissing and hugging patients, touching their breasts and making improper comments to them.
Sentencing Singh when he appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday, Lord Armstrong said that he had been convicted after trial of 54 charges of calculated and manipulative sexual abuse of 47 women and girls in relation to who, as a general practitioner, he was in a clear position of trust.
He said that Singh had committed the offences against his female patients persistently over a span of 34 years.
He said that Singh had breached his position of trust and carried out unwarranted examinations, telling him that he undermined the trust of the medical profession by eroding the trust that women would have had.
Lord Armstrong said that victim impact statements revealed that Singh’s actions had a devastating effect on his victims, some of whom now had a mistrust of the medical profession while others had suffered depression, low self-esteem and anxiety.
He condemned the 72-year-old to 12 years behind bars and placed him on the sex offenders register.
Singh’s defence agent, Janice Green, said he’d expressed extreme regret at his actions.
She said that Dr Singh knows that custody is the only disposal fitting given the serious breach of trust and that the gravity of the offences stems from that breach of trust. Yet, the 72-year-old had denied the charges against him.
Singh qualified as a doctor in India in 1974, and he registered with the General Medical Council as a doctor in November 1976 before taking up a job as a GP at a practice in North Lanarkshire, where he remained until 2018.
Singh also took up a position as a police casualty surgeon between 2005 and 2010 in Scotland, during which he examined people in custody.
This appears to be a health system that has failed for so many decades and for so many victims, and Mr Singh is an absolutely disgusting person who should have been handed down a more extended custodial punishment.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 