“Under cover of a white coat, he made sexual gestures that do not fall under medical imaging”summarizes Me Sylvie Reulet, lawyer for a civil party in the trial of Bassam El Absi, which begins Monday, February 20 before the Assize Court of Gironde. The 71-year-old radiologist, retired and now expelled from the College of Physicians, is on trial for rape and sexual assault, committed by a person abusing the authority conferred on him by his position. Five patients, the daughter of a former companion and two former secretaries of his office in Langon (Gironde), accuse him, in fact, of attitudes contrary to ethics.
The employees, who say they have implemented avoidance strategies over the years, denounce a sexualized work atmosphere, inappropriate gestures and behavior. One of them would even have served as a guinea pig to test a new probe. As for the patients, they remain marked by very specific palpations, massages and exercises – supposedly recommended to the radiologist by a physiotherapist friend –, caresses on the genital sphere, even digital intromissions during abdominal-pelvic and endovaginal ultrasounds.
It was a complaint filed in 2016, after three other complaints and reports from 2002 to which the ordinal or judicial authorities did not respond, which finally led the radiologist to the Assize Court. This 2016 file also brought to the surface repressed or buried testimonies for fear of losing a job or not being believed in front of a leader. “Patients were sent by their treating doctor or their gynecologist for a diagnosisargues M.e Reulet. He was the knowing one, the doctor, the good, legitimate man. They were impressed, he abused their trust. »
“My client disputes all these facts”
An expert report ordered during the investigation on the basis of the complaints reveals that “the practices denounced are not based on any medical or physiopathological justification. The positions that the accused made his patients adopt have nothing to do with an ultrasound worthy of the name and are not justified by any argument or any medical motivation. Nothing justifies digital penetrations and caresses at the vulvo-clitoral level are not part of the medical practices of any specialty whatsoever”. Therefore, for the prosecution, “the acts denounced necessarily proceed from a sexual intention”.
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