Dentist struck off for molesting women patients

A dentist who indecently assaulted three patients was struck off yesterday. After Michael Evans, 28, was found guilty by the General Dental Council, it emerged that he was sentenced to three months in jail earlier this year for a sexual assault on a patient.

Linda Dobbs, barrister to the council, said that the sentence had been imposed by Stonehaven Sheriff's Court in April after Evans pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a woman referred to as Miss M on 5 January. Ms Dobbs explained that, after injecting Miss M with a sedative, Evans had put his hand down her loose-fitting jumper and felt her right breast underneath her bra. He also slipped his hand down Miss M's trousers and inside her pants.

The committee found Evans guilty of indecent behaviour towards three patients, Mrs A, Miss B who was pregnant, and 11-year-old Miss C, and ordered that his name should be removed from the Dental Register for serious professional misconduct. He was cleared of indecency towards Miss C's mother, Mrs D.

The committee chairman and council president, Margaret Seward, said that, for the protection of the public, his registration would be suspended with immediate effect.

The assaults took place at Evans's surgeries in Fraserburgh and Banchory, Kincardineshire, between April and July last year.

Ms Dobbs said the allegations were "so strikingly similar" that any suggestion that the women were having erotic fantasies while under the influence of the drug, could be discounted. Dental experts who had carried out thousands of similar treatments had reported no such incidents of sexual fantasy, added Ms Dobbs.

Apart from Miss C and her mother, Mrs D, none of the victims knew each other, yet all had made very similar complaints against the dentist.

Evans denied indecent behaviour towards all four female patients but admitted administering quantities of drugs in excess of the dosage required and without having a second appropriately trained person present with him throughout treatment.

Christine Lambert, for Evans, told the committee: "There must be a doubt in your minds as to whether these incidents happened because there were doubts in all these women's minds." Miss B, for example, had even gone back the following week for more dental treatment, while Mrs D had done nothing about the assault for four weeks.

Ms Lambert said Evans had been under great stress, working long hours to pay off financial obligations. He had also felt rejected by his wife after the birth of their child .

Since the allegations were made, he had been suffering from acute depression and had seriously contemplated suicide, said Ms Lambert. Evans was about to be declared bankrupt and his home was to be repossessed.