A Sydney dentist has blamed two medical conditions for CCTV footage showing him touching himself in front of patients within his surgery.
Giving evidence at his sexual assault trial on Wednesday, Bassem Magdy El-Badrawy Fouad told jurors he had deep-vein thrombosis and was required to wear compression stockings when at work at his Mascot clinics.
The pressure from the stockings inflamed a fungal infection, which made him itchy and sore, and resulted in him involuntarily scratching his groin area in front of patients and nurses, he said.
"Using the stocking with skin legions is like a nightmare," he told the District Court jury.
The 55-year-old is charged with nine counts of aggravated sexual touching, indecent assault under authority, and intentionally sexually touching a child
Crown prosecutors allege that he would frequently press himself against his patients and would place his dentistry tools on their breasts.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying that his medical conditions forced him to sit in such a way to put him in closer proximity to his patients.
He also argued that CCTV footage which police claim showed him walking away from a patient and pulling his penis out actually showed him adjusting his clothing, including the compression stockings, after his conditions flared up.
He accepted that he was seen in the footage scratching or touching his groin area around patients, but denied this was for his own personal pleasure.
"Were any of the things you're doing (in these photographs) linked to sexual gratification or arousal in any way?" he was asked by defense barrister Jeff Clarke.
"No, not at all," he replied.
Fouad told jurors he had since received treatment for the fungal condition, but it had become more aggressive at the time of the alleged assault.
The dentist operated at two clinics at Mascot where the alleged assaults against five complainants, who cannot be named, took place.
The trial in front of Judge Phillip Mahony continues on Thursday.
