Michael Salmon guilty: Hospital activities 'chilling', says NSPCC

Former doctor Michael Salmon has been found guilty of indecently assaulting girls at a hospital where Jimmy Savile abused patients.

The 79-year-old was convicted of nine indecent assaults and two rapes carried out against six girls at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

Reading Crown Court heard the attacks took place between 1973 and 1988.

Police said more women had contacted them with allegations against Salmon since the start of the trial.

The former doctor, of Salisbury in Wiltshire, was struck off the medical register in 1991.

Alan Wardle, NSPCC: "It is quite chilling to think that these two men were working at Stoke Mandeville at the same time."

The court heard Salmon carried out many of his attacks behind a screen in his consulting room, while his victims' parents waited, believing he was completing a medical examination.

He raped a 16-year-old patient on two separate occasions in his bedroom after she turned to him for help, believing she was pregnant.

'Bomb-proof'
He touched the breasts of young girls "with the pretence of listening to their heart" and carried out intimate examinations for which there was no medical need, without a nurse present and without wearing surgical gloves, jurors were told.

The consultant paediatrician thought he was "bomb-proof" because no-one would believe a child over him, prosecutor Miranda Moore QC said.

Allegations about Salmon were first made to the Metropolitan Police in 2012 following the launch of Operation Yewtree, which is investigating historical abuse carried out by Savile and others.

Thames Valley Police, which took over the investigation into Salmon, said he claimed the allegations were "sexual fantasies" made up by "gold diggers" and described teenagers as unreliable witnesses.

Det Sgt Malcolm Wheeler said the former doctor was a "prolific sexual offender" who "preyed on young girls".

"They trusted him, they believed him, because he was a doctor and they thought he was trustworthy," he said.

A CPS spokesman said Salmon's offences were "particularly shocking" because of the abuse of his position.

Chief crown prosecutor Adrian Foster said: "His crimes were extremely traumatic for his victims who should have expected his support rather than this gross betrayal of their trust."

Alan Wardle, from the NSPCC, said Salmon had hidden "under a veil of responsibility".

"Increasingly there is no hiding place for men who have abused children," he said.

He paid tribute to Salmon's victims who, he said. had buried their abuse deeply, but "found the courage to come forward and speak out".

Salmon was found not guilty of one count of rape and another of indecent assault. He was also cleared of carrying out an illegal abortion.

Although he worked at Stoke Mandeville while Savile abused patients at the hospital, their offending is not believed to have been linked.

A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

BBC News - Doctor Michael Salmon guilty of indecent assaults