Appeal Court rejects ex-doctor’s bid to overturn sex-assault conviction, sentence

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This article was published 12/08/2022 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s highest court has quashed an attempt by a former walk-in clinic doctor to overturn his conviction and sentence for sexually assaulting six of his patients.

Amir Ravesh, 56, subjected the women to “objectification and humiliation” during examinations that served no medical purpose but his own sexual gratification, a Court of Queen’s Bench justice said when sentencing him to seven years in prison in 2020.

• Sept. 18, 2020: Judge gives walk-in clinic doctor seven-year sentence for sex assaults

Ravesh inappropriately and unnecessarily examined the six patients’ vaginas, anuses and breasts with his hands, the Crown argued.

Ravesh — full name Amir Houshang Mazhari-Ravesh — stood trial in 2019, initially accused of 12 counts of sexual assault under the guise of medical exams at his Elmwood walk-in clinic. The Crown stayed two counts and he was found not guilty of four.

In January, Ravesh appealed both the conviction and sentencing, arguing there was a miscarriage of justice in his trial.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal issued a written judgment Thursday dismissing the disgraced doctor’s attempt to overturn his conviction.

Ravesh had argued his lawyer had ineffectively represented him, that the court improperly relied on witnesses’ prior experience with doctors to conclude sexual assaults had happened, there was a misunderstanding of some expert evidence on how medical examinations occur and that the sentence imposed was excessive and harsh.

The trial judge, Justice Ken Champagne, had sentenced Ravesh to individual sentences for each count, totalling 12 years.

Champagne then applied the “totality principle” — which recognizes sentences must not be disproportionate and must reflect the degree of responsibility of the offender — reducing the combined sentence to seven years.

The doctor argued that combined sentence was too high. The Crown also appealed that combined sentence, arguing Ravesh got too little time.

Appeal Court Justice Holly C. Beard dismissed the sentencing appeals from the Crown and Ravesh.

Ravesh argued his lawyer ineffectively represented him by failing to have him testify, failing to file medical records as evidence and failing to cross-examine a complainant, among other arguments.

Beard wasn’t convinced.

Winnipeg police arrested Ravesh in October 2017, after a 19-year-old woman visited Health Sciences Centre for treatment and reported she had been sexually assaulted a day earlier.

News coverage of his then-alleged crimes resulted in other victims stepping forward, alleging sexual misconduct dating back as far as 2013.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba removed him from its list of practising physicians the day police publicized his arrest in October 2017.

He had been licensed in Manitoba since July 2010.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera