One of the youngest victims of predatory Lanarkshire doctor Krishna Singh has told of her relief after he was jailed for 12 years for a sickening string of sexual assaults on dozens of female patients spanning more than three decades.
The woman was just 13 when the shamed GP fondled her chest in an examination – while her mother was in the same room but out of sight.
She told how she remains haunted by the incident eight years ago, but says she will always be grateful to the first victim who finally reported Singh in 2018 and told others: “Do not be afraid to speak up.”
With Singh having been sentenced yesterday to 12 years behind bars, the woman said: “It is a sentence I hoped for but didn’t expect. I think it reflects how bad his crimes have been and I hope he serves every day of it.”
She was in her school uniform when she had gone to Singh’s surgery suffering from breathlessness, accompanied by her mother – and said she “instinctively knew something wasn’t right with how he touched me”.
The patient shared her concerns with her mother as soon as they left the exam room; but her mum had not seen the assault and dismissed her concerns, confident a doctor would never do such a thing.
One of three of Singh’s victims who were aged under 16, she said: “I thought I was coming to terms with it, but it is always there and I have thought about it so much over the years.
“If I go to a doctor or hospital I get anxious in case it’s a male doctor because I am scared it could happen again, and even now if I have breathlessness, I try to sort it myself because I don’t want to go to a doctor.
“What happened has made me question my trust with all professionals and made me anxious around men in general.”
She said that following Singh’s release on bail after his 2018 arrest: “I was scared I would walk into him. Even if I went into a shop I wondered if he might be there, and I felt nervous all the time that I would see him.
“It helps that he is in jail because I won’t bump into him. I just hope he does his full sentence.”
Her family had been new to the area at the time of the incident, so were not aware Singh had a reputation among women for being “creepy”.
The mum recalled: “As soon as we came out, my daughter said, ‘I didn’t like that – I didn’t like the way he touched me’.
“I absolutely dismissed her and told her he was a doctor and needed to examine her; it wasn’t until the police followed it up for the case [that] I realised she was right.
“As a parent I felt terrible, I felt that I had failed her as a mother, but in hindsight I don’t even know how I would have been able to go up against a doctor.”
Speaking about going to the police station with her daughter to identify Singh via video link, the mum said: “I was astounded at the number of victims – there were 21 women in the one morning we were there.
“Until then I didn’t get the true scale of his crimes and it was in that police station that day [that] the terrible reality of it all hit me. I think there will be so many more victims and I just hope they come forward now.”
Her daughter says she will always be grateful to the victim who finally reported Singh, saying: “I wish I could give her a hug. I will always be thankful she came forward because otherwise we would never have got any justice.”
She added that she had found solace in the other victims who truly understood her experience, saying: “I felt a sense of empowerment that all of these women came together to stand up against him.
“I would say to other women, do not be afraid to speak up if you have been sexually assaulted.”
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