A former nurse accused of sexually molesting three female patients and a student nurse has said he was merely performing medical procedures.
Ali Khamis Moh’d was a clinical nurse specialist at Sydney’s Norwest and Nepean private hospitals, attending to patients scheduled to have surgery in intensive care and coronary care units.
The 44-year-old is on trial at Parramatta District Court after pleading not guilty to five counts of intentional sexual touching without consent and three counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
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The eight charges, related to alleged offending between December 2018 and March 2022, are aggravated given the four women were under his authority at the time.
Today, crown prosecutor Sarah Beaumont told jurors that while Moh’d was teaching a 21-year-old student nurse how to listen for bowel sounds using a stethoscope, he grabbed her underwear, pulled them away from her skin and looked at her genital area.
He has been accused of molesting a 58-year-old patient over two days by inserting his finger into her anus while giving her an enema and putting his finger into her vagina while shaving her groin before an operation.
While looking after a 25-year-old female patient after she had completed a heart operation, Moh’d was asked to inspect a wound on her groin area.
As he was massaging the wound, he allegedly touched her vagina before inserting his fingers, Beaumont told the jury.
That patient started crying after he left the room before calling her doctor to find out the proper procedure for massaging a groin wound.
She filed a complaint with the hospital before going to police.
Jurors heard of alleged conduct around a fourth patient, a 67-year-old woman admitted for heart surgery.
After she had a shower, Moh’d helped place stickers on her body connected to a heart monitoring machine.
While he was doing this, he allegedly touched her breast and squeezed her nipple.
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“You have nice breasts for someone your age,” he’s alleged to have said.
“Get lost, you’re embarrassing me,” the patient allegedly said before swatting his hand away.
On the same day after she complained of back pain, he sat her down on the bed and gave her a back massage with some cream.
“You can touch me too if you want to,” he’s alleged to have said.
Beaumont said Moh’d had a tendency to be sexually attracted to female patients under his care and to act on those interests.
She said jurors would be asked to consider whether the nurse’s actions were done for proper health reasons.
“A sexual purpose has no place in genuine medical treatment,” she told the court.
Defence barrister Linda Barnes said her client denied sexually touching or having sexual intercourse with any of the four women.
“In short, Mr Moh’d’s case is that any contact he had with the complainants was for medical purposes, that is for health or hygiene purposes or for educational purposes,” she told the jury.
He had rejected prosecutors’ claims that certain sexual acts took place or that he made sexualised comments to the women, Barnes said.
One of the main issues would be the honesty and reliability of the complainants, including their memories and perceptions of events, jurors heard.
Moh’d came before the court an innocent man who had never been charged or convicted of any other offence, Barnes said.
The trial with Judge Ian Bourke continues tomorrow.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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