A retired Hawthorn doctor has been arrested and charged with a range of serious sexual crimes, including rape, that were allegedly committed during medical consultations as far back as the late 1970s. A warrant was executed at the Balwyn North home of Dr Con Kyriacou on Thursday morning and he has been charged with 35 offences. The 75-year-old was later released on bail. Dr Kyriacou’s arrest comes after three former patients went public with claims about Dr Kyriacou in November after concern about inaction by the national health regulator. The women had independently lodged complaints about Dr Kyriacou’s behaviour with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) beginning in 2016, which has been investigating the claims of misconduct for more than two years. Dr Kyriacou, who was aware he was under scrutiny, voluntarily withdrew from the register of medical practitioners in August 2017, claiming he was suffering from a brain injury. The complaints involved allegations that during consultations – in some cases dating back to the late 1970s – Dr Kyriacou made inappropriate comments or inappropriately touched them. The nature of their allegations cannot be published because Dr Kyriacou has been charged with criminal offences. A former patient, now aged 49, made an initial complaint about Dr Kyriacou’s behaviour to the Medical Board of Australia in 2004 but later withdrew it over concerns she would not believed. She filed a filed a formal complaint with AHPRA in July 2016. A second patient went to the police and the board in 2004 and 2008, before making an official complaint to AHPRA in August 2016. She says police at that time told her the case was weak because it was her word against his. A third ex-patient also complained to AHPRA, providing a sworn statement in January 2018. All three women have previously described growing frustrated at the pace and thoroughness of AHPRA’s investigation and, concerned that the disciplinary process had stalled, decided to air the allegations. The coverage prompted numerous other women to come forward claiming to be victims and sparked an investigation by Victoria Police’s sexual offences and child abuse investigation team (SOCIT) in Box Hill. The Age understands more than 20 former patients – all women – have now made statements against Dr Kyriacou to Box Hill SOCIT. That investigation culminated in the criminal charges laid against Dr Kyriacou on Thursday. Dr Kyriacou is set to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in early January. Dr Kyriacou’s lawyer, John Petts from Kennedys, could not be reached for comment. However, Mr Petts has previously said his client denied the allegations and was suffering from a “significant cognitive impairment” that impeded his memory. “You have questioned how it could be that Dr Kyriacou cannot recall these patients but can deny the alleged actions. The answer is that when these allegations were first made, Dr Kyriacou was able to provide clear instructions and he denied the allegations,” Mr Petts said. Following the result of an assessment in March 2018, psychiatrist Dr Peter McArdle concluded that Dr Kyriacou was “not cognitively well enough to brief his solicitor nor be a capable witness in court”. “When I quizzed him about the allegations he initially said that he couldn’t remember any of these people or the allegations and he denied them altogether,” Dr McArdle said. That diagnosis is set to be challenged in January during professional misconduct proceedings brought against Dr Kyriacou by the health regulator in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
