Irosha Manel (not her real name), a 17-year-old schoolgirl from Aranayaka, a village off Mawanella, went to see a physician in the town because of regular chest pains. She was accompanied by a friend. At the hospital, she was taken into a room for examination, while her friend was told to stay outside. Manel, who was in her school uniform, was asked to get onto the bed.
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| NCPA chairperson Anoma Gunatillake |
The doctor unbuttoned her dress, removed her undergarments and started examining her. The examination lasted for more than half-an-hour. Little did she know that she was being filmed by a mobile phone camera positioned in close proximity to the examination bed. In fact, it wouldn’t be for another two years before she came to know that she had been filmed, when the National Childcare & Probation Authority (NCPA) launched an investigation on a doctor who filmed his female patients under examination.
“I felt embarrassed by the manner in which he examined me. When I came out, my friend asked me why it took so long. I just told her that I was thoroughly examined”, Manel recalled to the investigators.
She was one of many victims reportedly videoed by this particular doctor.
This doctor, who used his mobile phone camera to video female patients at government and private hospitals, over a period of two years, is under investigation by the National Childcare & Probation Authority (NCPA) for sexual abuse of the female patients, Chairperson- NCPA, Anoma Gunatillake told the Sunday Times.
The NCPA, acting on a tip-off, recorded statements of at least one of the victims – one of two schoolgirls featured in the videos, and thereafter arrested the doctor at his home. “We are trying to identify more persons who are on camera and record their statements, while trying to ascertain whether any of them had been sexually abused,” she said.
The doctor allegedly set up his mobile phone in close proximity to the examination bed when examining female patients, and videoed them being examined. Later, he had downloaded it to the computer, according to investigations.
The doctor had reportedly lost the pen drive in which the videos had been saved, and the person who found the pen drive had downloaded the pictures and handed it over to the NCPA.
The videos showed that most of the patients videoed were schoolgirls in uniform.
The doctor had allegedly prevented persons accompanying the patients from entering the examination room, saying there was a female nurse inside.
“In fact, he had a female nurse, but our investigations indicate that this nurse was his partner in crime,” Ms. Gunatillake said.
The doctor was charged under section 286 A 345 365 B under the Penal code and remanded until next Friday.
Ms Gunatillake said that parents should be careful not to send their underage children alone, and also to alert the NCPA, when such incidents take place. |
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