Psychiatrist guilty of sex assaults on six patients

An eminent psychiatrist who abused vulnerable patients after lulling them into a false sense of security was convicted of rape and indecent assault yesterday.

Christopher Allison was found guilty of two rapes and nine indecent assaults on six of his female patients by a jury at Winchester Crown Court.

The 60-year-old consultant was cleared of one count of rape and two of indecent assault while deliberations continue on a further two charges for rape, one for indecent assault and one for attempted rape, involving four women.

Allison, standing to attention, his hands firmly by his side, closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief as the verdicts were delivered yesterday

During the six-week trial, the court was told how Allison had preyed on vulnerable patients – the youngest of whom was 16 – over a 17-year period.

As a psychotherapist at clinics in Kent and Hampshire during the 1980s and 1990s, he befriended women who came to him with a variety of problems, including sexual inhibitions, anorexia, depression and low self-esteem.

He gained their trust over months of consultations, abusing his position to make them believe that his eventual advances and demands were part of the therapy. His victims, the court was told, were so in awe of the doctor that they were unable to repel him.

He would begin by touching and stroking them before pressing up against them. Allison would then kiss the women until he advanced to indecently assaulting or raping them.

Charles Gabb, for the prosecution, told the jury of five men and seven women that in the early 1980s Allison was a successful consultant psychiatrist specialising in psychotherapy, and was well respected within his profession. But Mr Gabb said the consultant had a vulnerability, which was "an overbearing desire for sex.

"It was such that he could not control it. He must have realised when he gave in to that vulnerability the terrible tightrope he was walking – but he still went on and did it. He exploited them with his position.

"He did not jump in straight away," Mr Gabb said. "He waited until the opportunity presented itself or something happened so that he could not hold himself back. It was effectively lulling his patients into a false sense of security."

While working for the NHS at St Augustine's Hospital in Canterbury, Allison rose to the position of chairman of South East Thames Regional Health Authority's disciplinary committee. He later resigned because of complaints, moving to an address near Basingstoke, Hampshire, where he set up a private surgery.

Yesterday, Judge Patrick Hooton remanded Allison in custody, instructing the jury to continue their discussions on the outstanding charges this morning. In total, Allison, of Risby, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, denied five counts of rape, 12 of indecent assault and one of attempted rape on eight female patients between 1982 and 1999.