Ex-children’s doctor jailed for sexual abuse incidents given another four years
A former children’s doctor in jail for sexually abusing patients has been given a further four years in prison for assaulting 10 girls as young as eight.
Michael Salmon, 81, attacked his victims during the 1970s and 1980s, when he worked as a consultant paediatrician in various hospitals in Buckinghamshire, including the world-renowned Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury.
Earlier this month, a jury at Reading Crown Court found him guilty of 14 counts of indecent assault, but cleared him of rape and a further 11 counts of indecent assault.
Salmon, appearing in court walking on a stick and wearing a hearing loop, is already serving an 18-year term after being found guilty in February 2015 of two counts of rape and nine counts of indecent assault.
Salmon, formerly of Britford, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, indecently assaulted patients – aged between eight and 16 – while examining them, often behind a screen while their parents were in the room.
He demanded that one victim, who reported a problem with her ears, remove her clothes while he touched her inappropriately and did not examine her ears, while others were “routinely” made to disrobe.
He sexually abused one girl as she lay ill in her bedroom after going to visit her at home, while another girl was shown diagrams in books “like The Joy Of Sex”.
Sentencing him at the same court, judge Johannah Cutts QC said: “Parents, often very worried about their children’s condition, were thrilled their child was in your care. You were held in high esteem.
“It seems to me you considered yourself bomb-proof.
“You have never shown the slightest contrition or remorse for your actions.
“Your offending spanned 14 years – the girls were ill at the time and sexually assaulted by the doctor who was responsible for their care.
“They were treated as objects for your sexual gratification.”
The court heard that Salmon, a recognised expert in childhood migraines, told one of his victims that one of the five things that caused headaches was “worrying about sex”.
During the “intrusive” examinations, he touched his patients inappropriately, asked some whether they were sexually active and spoke about his own sex life.
More victims came forward after the publicity surrounding the trial last year, Judge Cutts said.
As some victims looked on, the judge said she was restricted to sentencing Salmon on the prison terms allowed under laws at the time of the offences.
She dismissed an argument by his defence that the further convictions should not increase the time he will spend in prison.
“The offences are plainly so serious only a custodial sentence can be justified,” she said.
“I am bound by the maximum sentences at the time of the offences.
“I have come to the conclusion the addition of indecent assaults on 10 further children, some as young as eight, would have meant a longer sentence.”
The judge said that, had Salmon been convicted of the offences at the same time as the others in 2015, the total prison sentence would have been one of 22 years.
He was given four years for two of the most serious counts, which have been reclassified as assault by penetration, and two years for each of the other counts, to run concurrently.
The four-year sentence will run consecutively to the term he is already serving, the judge said.
Salmon was struck off the medical register in 1991 after pleading guilty to three counts of indecent assault against young female patients in December 1990.
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