A former nurse will spend at least three and a half years in jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a student and patients under his care at two private hospitals.
Ali Khamis Moh’d molested three separate women at Sydney’s Norwest and Nepean private hospitals between December 2018 and March 2022.
The 44-year-old was sentenced to up to five years and two months behind bars on Friday with a non-parole period of three-and-a-half years.
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Judge Ian Bourke said Moh’d “manipulated and abused his position of authority for his own sexual gratifications”.
“The [victims] speak in clear terms of the fear, confusion, shock and sense of violation the victims experienced at the time of the incident,” he told Parramatta District Court.
After 14 hours of deliberations last month, a jury found Moh’d guilty on one charge of rape and three counts of aggravated sexual touching.
He was found to have grabbed a 21-year-old student nurse’s underwear, pulling it away from her skin to see her genitals as he taught her how to listen for bowel sounds using a stethoscope.
Jurors accepted further complaints by a 25-year-old patient that Moh’d had asked to inspect a surgical wound on her groin area, massaging it before touching her vagina with his fingers.
Moh’d was also found to have touched a 67-year-old woman’s breasts while replacing heart-monitoring stickers to her body after she had a pre-operation shower.
His lawyer Linda Barnes argued he should receive a lesser sentence as he did not seem to gain obvious sexual gratification from his offending.
“We often see before the courts evidence from complainants along the lines of the observations that a person was visibly aroused, had erections, were ejaculating,” she said.”
There was no evidence from any of the complainants that Moh’d demonstrated anything reflecting sexual gratification.
But Judge Bourke said the offending was serious and he was unsatisfied with that argument.
“The absence of such elements does not reduce the seriousness,” he said.
Moh’d’s wife sat at the back of the court silently during sentencing.
He will be eligible for release in 2028.
Readers seeking support can contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028.
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