‘Gynaecologist’ gets 3 years for sexual assault

A 59-year-old con man who posed as a gynaecologist duped a young woman into paying him €4,000 to visit his Swiss clinic and sexually assaulted her at her home in Cork on the pretext of carrying out a medical exam.

John Wilkins was jailed for three years yesterday. He only pleaded guilty to the crimes after a jury had been sworn in for his trial. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said he could see no sign of the accused being remorseful.

Detective Garda Denis Callanan testified that the accused checked into a Cork hotel — not identified so as to protect the identity of the victim of the sex crime —under the name, ‘Dr Erich Steinhausen’.

The accused told hotel staff that he was doing relief work at the Cork University Maternity Hospital and when he left the hotel each morning he carried a case and there was a stethoscope visible in his pocket.

The victim of the sexual assault was a young woman working in the hotel and he told her he was a consultant gynaecologist. The young woman trusted the well-spoken guest and confided in him that she had a recurring issue with thrush candida.

“The accused said he had a clinic in Switzerland and he would have her medically treated at a reduced fee. She discussed this with her boyfriend and they planned to double up the trip and use it as a vacation.

“The accused travelled with her to her residence in Cork. He proceeded to sexually assault her by placing two fingers in her vagina. [He also examined her breasts.] The injured party travelled to her credit union and withdrew €4,000 [which she gave to Wilkins],” Det Garda Callanan said.

The following day Wilkins left the hotel. She tried unsuccessfully to contact him on his mobile phone. She checked the name of the clinic online and it did exist and there was a real member of medical staff under the name used by Wilkins.

It was only when she saw that Wilkins had been prosecuted for giving the false name and leaving a trail of unpaid bills at hotels in Cork that she realised she had been duped.

When questioned by gardaí Wilkins refused to answer questions on the basis of doctor-patient confidentiality and repeatedly cited the Hippocratic oath. Judge Ó Donnabháin remarked that he must have meant the ‘hypocritic’ oath.

The man was jailed for nine months in December for clocking up thousands of euro in unpaid hotel bills in Cork City. Yesterday he got a total of three years for stealing the money by deception; pretending to be a doctor; and for sexual assault.

The young woman who was duped by Wilkins said yesterday: “I feel degraded, embarrassed, ashamed and stupid to think this man physically abused me for his own gratification. I was a trusting person. Now I question everything and everyone. I feel so ashamed. The accused person humiliated me in the worst possible way. I will not forgive him for this.

“I believed this man was genuine and had my own interests at heart. [After examining her vagina] he told me he had found something wrong and I would have to go to Zurich as soon as possible.”

Defence barrister Donal O’Sullivan said the accused had a lot of health problems and that his plea of guilty had saved the accused from giving evidence.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said the media and others often glossed over the value of a plea of guilty in such cases but he said that in this case it was a powerful public vindication of the victim.