A Dorset doctor has been struck off and will not be allowed to practice in the UK again after tormenting his partner to ‘serious’ physical and sexual abuse.
Devmitrasingh Daby, a former gynaecologist at Dorset County Hospital, told his victim he would ‘burn them alive’ while chasing her with a knife and fractured her wrist while she slept.
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service found that Daby’s misconduct has ‘significantly undermined public confidence in the profession’ and brought it ‘into disrepute’.
The tribunal, chaired by Jetinder Shergill, decided to punish Daby with immediate erasure - commonly referred to as being struck off - and means he can never practice medicine in the UK again.
Daby’s hearing was held in Manchester from March 20-31 and heard evidence from Ms A – with whom Daby had been in a ‘close, personal relationship’.
The former doctor, who qualified in 1982 from Andhra University in India and moved to the UK permanently in 2002, chose not to be present at the tribunal proceedings.
Daby wrote a letter defending himself in which he made ‘serious allegations’ about the witnesses giving evidence - but due to his absence he was unable to be cross-examined and the letter had ‘little, if any weight, attached’.
The hearing heard that Daby met Ms A in 2008 and she moved from India to the UK later that year. It was found that the domestic violence started soon afterwards and continued for the next nine years.
The police had been involved on three occasions during that time and in 2016, a prosecution for assault on Ms A by Daby was brought, but he was found ‘not guilty’ at the time.
After considering evidence from the victim, a relative of Daby’s and others, the tribunal determined that Daby had been 'found proved' of committing a number of offences against Ms A.
These included being ‘physically abusive’ towards her by kicking, punching and hitting her with items such as a belt and a rope, as well as throwing hot coffee and food over her.
Dorchester doctor Daby was also ‘threatening’ Ms A by holding a knife in his hand and telling her: ‘If you open your mouth, I will slice you down. You are a servant and live and behave like a servant’.
The doctor even told his victim he would take his own life and hers if she reported his behaviour to the police.
Daby was also found to be emotionally and sexually abusive towards Ms A, including hitting her if she ‘did not submit to sexual demands’ and telling her he ‘enjoyed performing intimate examinations on patients’.
The doctor was even found to have fractured Ms A’s wrist by twisting her hand while she slept and chased her while holding a knife, saying he would ‘burn them alive’.
It was also proved at the tribunal that while the victim was recovering in hospital, Daby told them: ‘You are not saying a single word about what has happened. If you speak then I will take an overdose’.
Daby’s long list of offences include dragging Ms A by her arms from the bed to the floor and holding her head down in a bathtub before grabbing an empty tin of Ghee [pure butter] and hitting her over the head, causing them to suffer bruising and bleeding.
The tribunal eventually determined that Daby’s fitness to practise is impaired due to his misconduct and he is said to have ‘not acknowledged any wrongdoing’ or ‘shown any remorse’ for his actions.
Chairman Mr Shergill said that a doctor’s conduct outside the workplace is capable of amounting to misconduct and that the public needed ‘good doctors’ who are ‘honest and trustworthy’.
“The tribunal finds Ms A’s accounts of such a long history of abuse to be compelling, credible and in many instances harrowing,” Mr Shergill added.
“There is an undercurrent of a pattern of behaviour to exert control over, demean and humiliate Ms A.”
In his conclusion, Mr Shergill decided that it was in the ‘public interest’ to impose an immediate suspension on Daby, as well as erasing his name from the medical register.
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