Stephen Cox: GP found guilty of indecently assaulting women he was treating during 'routine examinations'

A retired family doctor has been found guilty at a retrial of indecently assaulting women as he carried out routine examinations.

Stephen Cox, 65, was convicted of 12 counts, and acquitted of a further four after a four-week trial at Reading Crown Court, where he is due to be sentenced on Monday.

Cox denied all 16 charges of indecent assault against seven different women while working at the Ralphs Rides surgery in Bracknell in Berkshire, between 1988 and 1997.

Six of the guilty verdicts were unanimous and the other six by a majority verdict.

Prosecutor Chris Hewertson told jurors Cox used the cover of carrying out "routine medical examinations" to assault the women.

But he was in fact "motivated by sexual pleasure by the deliberate touching of certain areas of the body" and took "sexual gratification" from the encounters.

His actions were not medically justified, Mr Hewertson said, calling his conduct "inappropriate, wrong, criminal."

In his defence, Cox said the women were mistaken in their allegations and that the examinations would have been medically justified.

Nine of the allegations made against Cox, of Stockton Mill, Welshpool in Shropshire, were made by one former patient and all his victims were women.

Detectives had to rely on old-fashioned handwritten GP notes as the offences took place before using computers became commonplace, Thames Valley Police said.

These notes played an important part in establishing the time periods in which he targeted his victims, they said.

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Investigating officer Detective Constable Sara Di Giorgio said Cox was a "prolific and predatory sex offender hiding beneath the mask of being a trusted doctor", and "completely betrayed" patients' trust.

She said Cox carried out a series of indecent assaults "which his victims have had to live with for many decades".

The detective added: "He has never displayed an ounce of remorse for what he had done, and has constantly denied any wrongdoing, this despite a number of women, none of whom know each other, coming forward to report what he had done to them."

She said Cox had also practised in Burton-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Derby, Measham, Wokingham, Ouse Valley, and Telford and encouraged anyone who believed they may have also been a victim of his to come forward.

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