A doctor accused of sexually assaulting a vulnerable patient in Bunbury hospital’s emergency department told police he never touched her “private parts”. And surgical registrar Priyantha Dayananda said he could not understand how the 45-year-old patient later received “dirty” text messages from a phone registered in his name. Mr Dayananda is on trial in the District Court accused of digitally penetrating the woman during a medical examination in December 2017. Prosecutors say Dr Dayananda was conducting an abdominal examination on the woman, who was in pain from complications following surgery months before, when he moved his hand into her underwear and assaulted her. In a police interview shown to the jury today Dr Dayananda denied the alleged crime, saying he would “never, ever go beyond the pelvic area” during a stomach examination. Dr Dayananda said if there was a reason to examine a patient’s genital area he would do so with another medical professional in the room. “I can confidently say I never examined her private parts or her chest,” he told police. The doctor said he would “never do it, especially with people like this” because of a fear of catching a sexually transmitted infection. “I don’t want to touch their skin … if I catch anything my job is done,” he said. The alleged victim claims she began receiving text messages and phone calls from the doctor, and she saved the contact number in her phone as “Sleaziest slyest Doctor”. Prosecutors allege Dr Dayananda contacted the woman using a “secret” phone that he kept hidden from other people. During the interview, police revealed the woman had received several text messages, including one that said it was “your doctor from Bunbury, remember I touched your beautiful tummy at emergency?” Another text from the same number allegedly said: “love to kiss your tummy again”. Phone records showed the messages were sent from a phone registered in Dr Dayananda’s name from Griffith in NSW, where Dr Dayananda admitted he was staying for a work trip at the time. But Dr Dayananda said the phone had gone missing and “that is not my normal writing, I don’t write this type of sexual messages, not even (for) my wife”. “I can confidently say I don’t like these types of messages,” he said. “I don’t write these types of dirty messages to anyone. I haven’t done that.” In the interview, the doctor said he could not explain how the messages were being sent or how the woman’s number ended up in the phone. “I can’t understand how this is happening,” he said. Asked if the woman had “made any advances” towards him he said she had not, but said even if she had, she was “not my type”. He also denied ever having an affair. The court was earlier told the woman had previously been an in-patient at Bunbury hospital before the alleged attack, after needing emergency surgery on her stomach following a violent domestic incident. And it was there the jury was told she had first met Dr Dayananda, who was one of her treating physicians. The woman testified he had paid “special attention” to her during that two-week stay, visiting her on his own almost daily, asking her out, offering to show her WA and also stroking her hair. The woman said she remembered him as the “sleazy one”. After being discharged in October she had to return to the hospital in December after her surgical wound became infected. The trial continues.
