'Porn addict' doctor struck off after being jailed for secretly filming women having sex
4 July 2022, 15:24
A doctor who was jailed for secretly filming women taking showers and having sex on a pin-hole camera hidden in an electric toothbrush has been struck off the medical register.
Vinesh Godhania, 33, from Norwich, filmed his housemates, colleagues and the mother of a child patient on the tiny camera.
He also accessed victims' iCloud accounts from which he downloaded naked photos, intimate chats and material showing sex acts with the offences taking place from 2012, when Godhania was a medical student, through to 2020 when he was arrested.
The disgraced former doctor later visited sexually explicit websites and pornographic more than 19,400 times between January and November 2020.
Godhania was jailed for two years and eight months in November 2021 after pleading guilty to seven charges of voyeurism and eight charges of unauthorised access to computer material at West and Central Hertfordshire Magistrates' Court in August last year.
He was placed on the sex offenders' register at St Alban's Crown Court for 10 years.
He was struck off the medical register following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing on June 23.
Read more: Chilling video shows suspected Copenhagen gunman brandishing rifle before 3 were killed
Among Godhania's victims were 17 people who used bathrooms or toilets at his homes as well as a patient who was filmed inside Basildon Hospital.
The 33-year-old stole materials from iCloud accounts of over 100 people, among them 23 colleagues.
His offences were uncovered by a cyber crimes unit in 2020 after officers discovered he had been paying fees to use a data breach search engine.
A panel heard Godhania used a "combination of surreptitiously placed cameras in the bathrooms and toilets of the homes he has lived in" to film the victims, who were all adults and "exclusively female".
He spent eight years as a doctor between 2012 and 2018 before leaving medicine to work at his parents' tobacconist shop, but was still a qualified medical professional when he stole material from iCloud accounts.
Prosecutors at St Albans Crown Court warned there could be up to "2,000 victims".
Read more: SAS bans troops from using offensive nicknames such as 'Doris, Ruperts and crabs'
A victim impact statement read: "When you go to hospital you are very vulnerable, you naturally trust the professionals dealing with you and certainly do not expect this violation.
"I feel uncomfortable and unfortunately this incident will change my view of people in a position of trust and will stay with me for a long time.
"I believe I will be more cautious and anxious in the future when dealing with people on a similar basis, especially when sharing information with others."
A report by Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said: "The Tribunal concluded that Dr Godhania’s sexual misconduct was particularly serious. It took place over a prolonged period of time, was extremely serious and impacted on the privacy and dignity of patients, colleagues and members of the public.
"Dr Godhania’s offending behaviour engaged all three limbs of the overarching objective and amounted to a significant breach of principles set out in GMP.
"The Tribunal concluded that given the seriousness, sophistication, scale and nature of Dr Godhania’s actions, his behaviour was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration."
Read more: Dramatic moment easyJet flight intercepted by fighter jets over 'hoax bomb threat'
