Police have charged prominent Brisbane surgeon Vahid Reza Adib – the partner of former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – with rape.
Adib, a bariatric surgeon who runs an obesity clinic at the private Wesley hospital in Brisbane’s western suburbs, attended the Southport police station on the Gold Coast voluntarily on Friday.
He was charged with three counts of rape, two counts of deprivation of liberty and one count of sexual assault.
Adib was granted police bail and will face court at a later date. He made no comment outside the police station.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email“It will be alleged the man sexually assaulted a woman in her 30s at a Goodwin Terrace residence on 30 March,” police said in a statement.
“Following extensive investigations, on 30 April, detectives executed a crime scene warrant at the property where several items were seized.”
Television cameras captured footage of police searching Adib’s Burleigh Heads apartment on Thursday. The Queensland police service would not comment on the investigation at the time.
Adib’s website said he had performed more than 20,000 operations and had expertise in laparoscopic surgery and obesity management. He has worked in Brisbane since he was a surgical trainee in the mid 1990s.
But it was his relationship with Palaszczuk, which began six years into her tenure as premier and at the height of her popularity, that placed him in the public eye.
Palaszczuk had been in the middle of a promotional tour for her memoir. She cancelled several media interviews on Thursday and Friday, but attended a “meet the author” session at a Gold Coast library on Tuesday evening.
She said during the event she was “not aware” of any investigation. She did not respond to journalists’ questions outside the event.
A statement released by Adib’s lawyers late Friday said he would “vigorously defend the charges”.
“Dr Adib is shocked about the allegations made about him and is taking the matter very seriously,” his lawyer Dan Rogers said.
“Like all persons accused of a crime, he is presumed to be innocent and intends to vigorously defend the charges. Right now, Dr Adib is primarily concerned about the welfare of his family and his patients and he will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are looked after in the coming weeks.”
Adib is due to appear at Southport magistrates court on 14 May.
