Assault victim wins right to sue health authority

A judge has ruled that a victim of the disgraced doctor Clifford Ayling can proceed with a damages claim against the health authority that employed him.

Jeanette Godden, 32, from Folkestone, Kent, wants to sue the former East Kent Health Authority relating to an indecent assault at an antenatal clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone in 1993. She complained at the time and was told that the doctor would not have access to female patients again, Canterbury County Court was told last month.

However, the court was told that before the assault the health authority knew about three complaints of sexual misconduct against Ayling yet continued to employ him. The court was told that Ayling had been dismissed as early as 1987 from the neighbouring Kent and Canterbury Hospital for "unacceptable conduct" relating to a botched childbirth.

The authority defended itself on the basis that the claimant failed to bring the charge within six years of the assault. But Judge William Poulton ruled yesterday that Mrs Godden did have an "arguable case" for a claim of negligence.

He said: "It is the claimant's evidence that when she complained she was assured that there had never been such a complaint against Dr Ayling before. She accepted this assurance."

Mrs Godden, who has three children, is one of 10 women Ayling was convicted of indecently assaulting in December 2000. Ayling, 70, was jailed for four years and later struck off the medical register.