Jail for sex assault doctor

Holdsworth had worked at Stobhill Hospital

A doctor who indecently assaulted a young woman and thrashed her with a metal coat hanger has been sent to prison for three years.

Darren Holdsworth, 36, had admitted attacking his victim at his flat in Glasgow in November last year.

Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, the judge, Lord McEwan, told Holdsworth: "This was a very vulnerable young woman and should have been recognised as such by you, particularly someone who is a medical man."

He said he should remain under supervision for a further two years after his release.

The accused met his victim in a restaurant

Holdsworth, from Keighley, in West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to attacking the teenager at his flat on 8 and 9 November last year.

He had worked in the drink and drug rehabilitation unit of Stobhill Hospital in north Glasgow.

The court heard that he had first seen the 19-year-old last October while she was having a meal with her parents in a restaurant.

Advocate depute Derek Batchelor, prosecuting, said Holdsworth had passed her a note containing his telephone number.

She phoned him and they met later at his flat, where they had sexual intercourse.

During a subsequent meeting the following month the girl, who did not usually drink, got quite drunk.

Rape allegation

They returned to the doctor's flat, where the assault took place.

The trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard that the young woman had suffered from anorexia between the ages of 14 and 16.

Maurice Smyth, solicitor-advocate for the accused, asked the judge to consider a fine or non-custodial sentence.

However, Lord McEwan said Holdsworth was in debt and the seriousness of the charge meant a custodial sentence.

On 15 October, the Crown dropped the rape allegation and deleted charges that he had restrained the woman on a bed and taken indecent photographs of her.

Holdsworth, of Birchwood Road, Syke Side, had pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of indecently assaulting the girl, striking her with the coat hanger and rubbing oil on her body.

The court heard other allegations

A plea of not guilty to half-strangling the girl with his hands at his parents' home in Keighley on 8 November last year was also accepted.

A further charge of sexually assaulting another woman between October and December 2001 at his flat in Glasgow was also dropped.

But Lord McEwan admonished Holdsworth for possession of cannabis at his flat on 17 January.

The judge referred to a social inquiry report on the accused, which said that Holdsworth had been addicted to cannabis at the age of 16 and drank alcohol to excess and remarked that it was "bleak in the extreme".

He told Holdsworth, who has been placed on the sex offenders' register, that he was a "potential risk to women" and added: "It is a very serious offence to strike her with a metal coat hanger."