‘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’.