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A doctor’s been jailed for more than 10 years for groping 15 women and girls - including a child aged just 12.
Alan Tutin, who lives near Tonbridge, did it over a period of 24 years from 1980 to 2004 at the Merrow Park Practice in Guildford.
A judge told the 71-year-old he would "take advantage of often vulnerable patients to carry out unnecessary and inappropriate examinations for his own sexual gratification".
The court heard Tutin spent hours in his surgery looking at porn and chatting on sex lines.
The assaults were committed under the guise of breast examinations or vaginal examinations, the Old Bailey heard.
Sally O’Neill said Tutin squeezed one patient's breasts in a "really immature Benny Hill way" as if they were "a couple of melons".
The GP left a community midwife feeling "dirty and violated" by cupping her breasts and plunging his hand in her pants during a routine medical check required by her insurance company.
He also groped a 12-year-old girl who went to see him for a head cold not long after her mother passed away.
It can now be revealed that Tutin was caught by other partners at the surgery downloading porn and engaging in sordid sex chats during work hours.
The doctor previously twice stood trial accused of similar allegations but neither resulted in any convictions.
But he was later struck off for abusing five patients for his own sexual gratification by the GMC in 2009.
He strenuously denied the latest claims, insisting: "I have always tried to do my best for patients throughout my career."
Louise Sweet, QC, defending, said the most recent investigation followed "publicity and intense gossip of a salacious and poisonous nature" in the wake of the earlier trials.
She claimed Tutin's accusers were simply "misunderstanding" or "misremembering" what happened to them.
But the Old Bailey jury found Tutin guilty of assaulting against 15 victims following a nine-week trial.
Judge Nigel Peters QC today jailed him for a total of 10-and-a-half years.
"There cannot be a more serious abuse of trust that these courts have to deal with than that of a doctor and a patient," he told the disgraced defendant.
You have carried out wholly unnecessary procedures and examinations, no doubt to fuel your own sexual gratification..." - Judge Nigel Peters QC
"You violated the faith patients had in you. You have carried out wholly unnecessary procedures and examinations, no doubt to fuel your own sexual gratification."
He said 13 of the charges "relate to totally unnecessary breast examinations" with one of those also involving rubbing the victim’s external genital area.
Another "involved inappropriate touching of the pubic hair of the surgery’s midwife when she consulted you for a regular insurance examination", while he "masturbated" another woman during an internal exam.
"It was anything but medical," Judge Peters continued.
"You have caused these patients years of worry and concern.
"Many remain suspicious of doctors and some refuse to see male doctors to this day and won’t allow their children to attend without a chaperone.
"Five of the victims were teenagers, and one was as young as 12 and had recently lost her mother.
"They were vulnerable and trusted you.
"Your style as a GP was autocratic, you gave little or no explanation of what procedures you were carrying out and on occasions didn’t make adequate or proper notes of what you were actually doing.
"When chaperones were latterly introduced you had a cavalier attitude to them.
"Your standing in the community and within the Merrow Park practice no doubt gave you a veneer by which you attacked your patients for your own personal gratification.
"I did not allow evidence to go before the jury that you were found by other partners within the practice to be engaged in downloading pornography and involved in discussions on sex chat lines during surgery hours.
"This was not illegal in itself, but nonetheless another indication of your predilection."
Tutin qualified as a doctor in 1974 and spent the next few years doing hospital jobs in general medicine.
He then moved into general practice and after completing his year as a trainee GP, spent a year in a practice in Essex before joining the Merrow Park Practice in Guildford in 1980.
The GP remained a partner there for over 25 years, initially as a junior partner and then as senior partner.
His wife Angela was also a GP there and they and their four children lived in Hillier Road, Guildford.
"It seems that Alan Tutin ran the financial side of the practice and was undoubtedly someone who wielded a lot of influence," said Ms O'Neill.
"He appears to have had quite a dominant personality and perhaps a somewhat arrogant and brusque way of dealing with both patients and staff."
Tutin was cleared of sexually abusing other women following two trials in 1999, then cleared of inappropriately examining eight women in routine check-ups after a General Medical Council hearing in 2001.
Two years later another woman came forward with a complaint and Tutin was eventually arrested in 2006 after more allegations were made.
One of his victims was 17 when she went to see Tutin to be prescribed the pill between 1981 and 1983.
She told jurors Tutin used both hands to rub her breasts and tugged on her nipples during the "uncomfortable, creepy, horrible" appointment.
In 1984 or 85, an insurance company required a midwife at the practice to have a medical.
Tutin used "totally inappropriate language" when he told her to "get her kit off" and commented on the size of her breasts before "groping them with both hands".
The midwife said she "felt dirty and violated" and afterwards told two of her colleagues while she was in tears.
She described in a victim impact statement how she "loved" her job at the practice, where she "felt like part of a big family", only to leave it feeling "abused and violated" by Tutin.
Another woman described feeling "mortified, embarrassed and ashamed" when the GP "groped" her whilst she was a teenager after going to see him for something innocuous like a wart on her foot.
The court heard how another woman went to see Tutin in around 1986 when she was 19 only to be groped by the doctor who used both hands to ‘grope and squeeze’ her breasts simultaneously.
She said she felt like the GP "took advantage of her naivety and trust" that what he was doing was proper, the court heard.
Another teenager described how Tutin molested her when she was 15.
She said the GP grabbed her breasts whilst supposedly checking for appendicitis.
Tutin "embarrassed" a 16-year-old girl who went to see him in 1994 when he appeared to be "feeling" her breasts "as opposed to checking for lumps".
The experience left her feeling "squeamish" and she opted never again to see a male doctor.
Another woman told jurors Tutin cupped her breast when she was just 12 after asking her to remove her top when she came in to see him over a head cold shortly after the death of her mother.
A 26-year-old woman told police how Tutin panted as he shoved his hand inside her bra for 'a good handful and a feel' of her breast before rubbing her vagina up and down during an intimate exam in 1996.
She described the worst thing was being left with the feeling that Tutin was "able to commit a crime against her using the cover of a doctor and medical procedure".
The GP squeezed another patient's breasts in a 'really immature Benny Hill way' as though they were "a couple of melons" when she was in her early twenties, between 1996 and 1999.
Tutin was using both hands simultaneously and gave no explanation for the examination.
The victim believed there may have been at least two other times when he did the same before she changed doctors.
An air hostess in her mid-twenties reported how the 'smirking' doctor scooped one of her breasts out of her bra and appeared to be "staring" at them during an appointment for a renewal of her contraceptive pill in 1999.
A 44-year-old woman was fondled during a breast exam after she lost her voice in 1999.
Tutin "tried to stimulate" another patient in her early thirties during breast and vaginal examinations later that same year.
He behaved in a similar way towards another patient, in her mid-forties, during an internal examination also in 1999, only stopping when she cried out that he was hurting her.
An 18-year-old girl told police she was made to feel embarrassed after Tutin groped her breasts during a check-up in 2003.
The GP was struck off the medical register by the GMC in 2009 for abusing five patients in similar circumstances.
Another police investigations was opened in 2013 in which 10,000 letters were sent to former patients.
Ms Sweet referred to this "awful part of Dr Tutin's life" when the first allegations were made which, she reminded jurors, "he came out of completely exonerated".
"This investigation postdates publicity and intense gossip of a salacious and poisonous nature," she told the jury during the trial.
Tutin told jurors: "I totally deny that I have sexually assaulted any patient.
"I have always tried to do my best for patients throughout my career."
His wife said the allegations had left her husband feeling "suicidal".
"It's been absolutely horrendous," she said.
"His self-esteem has plummeted to almost nil and he has become very badly depressed from it all.
"It has become very difficult at home and at the surgery. At times he has become suicidal.
"All he ever wanted was to be a doctor. He had to fight to do that, and when he became a doctor he wanted to be the best doctor."
"He was very thorough during examinations but if you're no thorough, you don't find anything."
Ms Sweet told the court this morning: "It is a fact that Dr Tutin is now a man in his early 70s, and prison is hard – he cuts quite a dejected figure already – for a man of no experience, let alone a man of his years.
"He will be separated from his wife of almost 40 years for the first time in his life.
"He has four children and grandchildren who, I know along with his wife, are devastated."
Tutin, of Tonbridge, denied 27 counts of indecent assault and one of assault by penetration.
He was convicted of 15 indecent assaults and cleared of ten while two counts will lie on file.
Tutin was also found not guilty of assault by penetration.
He was jailed for a total of 10-and-a-half years.
An NSPCC spokesperson said: “Tutin’s patients went to him in good faith, seeking his wisdom and reassurance. Instead he used his position for his own depravity over two decades, targeting vulnerable women and young girls.
“He no doubt thought he’d got away with it but today’s sentencing shows that abusers can be brought to justice no matter how long ago their crimes took place.
“His victims have been incredibly brave in coming forward and we hope they have received help and support to overcome their experiences.”
