A Sydney GP accused of sexually assaulting sleeping patients has told a jury a 16-year-old consented to receiving “alternative treatment” involving him placing his genitals in her hand.
Ali Khorami has pleaded not guilty to 25 charges related to five female complainants who attended the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, in Glebe, for various sleep problems in 2018.
The 49-year-old, who supervised overnight sleep studies, has told his NSW District Court trial he performed tantric healing on two of the patients involving his genitals.
During an October 2018 police interview, Dr Khorami was presented with a screenshot from overnight CCTV footage showing him placing his penis on a 16-year-old patient’s hand.
Today he told the court she had told him she was 17.
“I got consent from her because legally she can make decision about alternative treatment … any sort of medical treatment,” he said.
“She was not sleeping, she wanted to take this experience.”
At the same time, he took her blood pressure.
He told the court this was not something he normally did but was “a special treatment for some patients”.
The doctor said he trained for “many, many years” to perform the treatment, which was “not masturbation”.
“Masturbation is for sexual reason, but it’s totally different,” he said.
The complainants were aged between 16 and 29.
Under cross examination, Dr Khorami also denied separate allegations he drugged a 20-year-old woman before she went to bed by spiking her fruit juice with Temazepam.
The patient made a complaint after feeling abnormally tired the next day and traces of the drug showed up in a urine test.
He claimed the woman told him in confidence she had taken an unknown medication for stress relief and denied putting anything in her juice.
The trial, before Judge Leonie Flannery, continues.