GP: I was suicidal after sex assault claim
“I have never seen this patient as far as I am concerned and none of this happened as far as I am concerned,” Kevin Mulcahy, aged 56, of Cregane, Lombardstown, Mallow, Co Cork, testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
The doctor is on trial on a single count of indecently assaulting the girl at his surgery on Strand St, Kanturk, Co Cork, on a date unknown between September 1, 1989, and June 22, 1990.
He was asked by Blaise O’Carroll, defending, about his reaction to the allegation when it was put to him in 2010. “It hit me like a train, I was absolutely flabbergasted,” he said, adding that he had spent 20 years building up a general practice that would sustain his family.
“I threatened suicide. I got into the car and I put a pipe onto the exhaust and into the car. I phoned my wife. I said to my wife, ‘If you don’t get me to a psychiatric hospital I am going to commit suicide’.”
Mr Mulcahy said his wife and a friend got him to hospital where he was treated for anxiety for six weeks. He said he had no recollection of the complainant and did not recognise her when she gave evidence on the opening day of the trial on Monday. “If she walked down the street, I would not recognise her,” he said.
Commenting generally on examining a person with a chest complaint he said, “My practice is if you are going to examine the chest, examine it properly. If you are examining someone’s chest, you will need some degree of exposure. You have to be able to put the stethoscope on the skin. You could fumble to get it under the clothing but that is not the proper way to do it.”
Asked if he told the complainant to take off her upper clothing, he said: “I certainly did not tell her to take off her upper clothing. I never said that, I never saw her.”
Asked if he touched her breasts — the complainant alleged that he fondled them for five to 10 minutes and breathed heavily — he said: “I did not touch her breasts. I have no recollection of seeing her, it certainly would not be my policy to examine anyone’s breasts... It never happened. It never would happen.”
Cross-examined by Siobhán Lankford, prosecuting, Mulcahy agreed it was possible the complainant had attended his surgery but that he did not recollect it.
The trial continues.
