Patient jailed for fondling doctor’s breast

A PATIENT who fondled a doctor’s breast at the San Fernando General Hospital was yesterday sent to jail for six months with hard labour.

Michael Bhagaloo, 25, of Rio Claro, was being examined by the doctor in the Accident and Emergency department when he began to fondle her breast.

Bhagaloo yesterday faced a charge of indecent assault before senior magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court. He pleaded guilty to the charge laid by PC Piper of the San Fernando Police Station.

Prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan told the court it was not the first the doctor had attended to Bhagaloo.

She was examining his mouth for suspected infection and, according to Seedan, when she went close to him he remarked, “Yuh getting fat and yuh breast getting big.”

Seedan told Antoine, Bhagaloo then fondled the doctor’s left breast. The traumatised woman immediately left the room. A report was made to San Fernando police who went to the hospital and arrested Bhagaloo.

He confessed to them that he did grab the doctor’s breast.

“I touch her, but I tell she sorry,” he said when confronted.

The magistrate was also told that the doctor said, in a victim impact statement, she was afraid and is fearful that such violation could be repeated.

Seedan said Bhagaloo had apologised to the doctor at the police station. Attorney Analee Girwar, who represented Bhagaloo, said her client suffers from a number of congenital defects, including having no teeth or fingernails, and receives a disability allowance. Antoine was also told that Bhagaloo had no previous convictions or pending matters.