Doctor convicted of series of sexual offences

A doctor has been found guilty of a series of sexual offences committed over a number of years against male patients at the surgery he worked at in Canterbury.

Gregory Manson was a GP practising at Cossington House Surgery from 1999 to 2017 who carried out unnecessary examinations of men’s genitals, without offering a chaperone to them or explaining the reasons for the examinations. Manson did not put details in the patient notes that these examinations had taken place or set out any findings from them.

An investigation started after one victim came forward and further victims were then identified. Some of the victims described being surprised by what happened to them, with one describing how he felt “both embarrassed and violated”.

The trial was told by an expert who looked at each case that there were no medical justifications for some of the examinations. Some of the offences took place during new patient health checks, but no such examinations were required.

Will Bodiam from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “These patients trusted Manson as he was their GP and he abused that trust in an appalling way, carrying out intimate examinations which were not all medically justified.

“They described their discomfort at what happened to them and some of them actively tried to avoid seeing Manson because of their previous experiences with him.

“On several occasions, the victims were not even given the option to consent to the examinations and had their underwear removed with no warning.

“Manson never explained to the patients what he was doing and why, failing to offer them the opportunity to have a chaperone and not even recording the examinations he had undertaken or any findings from them in the patient notes. This is not what patients should expect from their GPs.”