Nine years for sex assault GP

Baillie assaulted the women over a 14 year period

A doctor has been jailed for nine years after admitting a string of indecent assaults on women patients.

David Baillie showed little emotion as he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Lady Cosgrove, sentencing, said the Glasgow GP's actions amounted to a "gross breach of professional trust" placed in him by his patients.

Baillie pleaded guilty to assaulting 17 women aged between 16 and 30 when he appeared at the High Court in Dunfermline last month.

The father-of-two from Wishaw is currently in divorce proceedings with his estranged wife, his counsel Ruth Anderson QC told the court on Monday.

Baillie was struck off by the General Medical Council last year after patients complained about him.

He carried out what was described in court as a "campaign of indecency" beginning in January 1986 and ending in May 2000.

The shamed GP carried out the assaults on 13 women at his surgery at Maryhill Health Centre in Glasgow and another four at a student medical practice, over a 14-year period.

He recognises all too clearly his actions have corrupted all of the good things which he has done, such as his work with the Scottish Rugby Union, his involvement with the university and also his good work with many of his patients Ruth Anderson Defence QC

His name has been entered on the Sex Offenders' Register.

Before sentencing, Ms Anderson said Baillie, the former team doctor for the Scotland under-21 rugby team, accepted he would receive a prison term for offences which were an "exceptionally serious breach of trust" over many years.

"He has left a trail of devastation in his wake," Ms Anderson conceded.

But the QC asked Lady Cosgrove to take account of the "punishment" her client was already enduring and would continue to suffer even after his release.

This included the loss of his marriage, his home, and regular access to his two children, as well as the financial and professional loss of being struck off the medical register.

"He recognises all too clearly his actions have corrupted all of the good things which he has done, such as his work with the Scottish Rugby Union, his involvement with the university and also his good work with many of his patients," she added.

Baillie was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh

Ms Anderson said most of the women who had complained about Baillie had been unaware that "anything untoward had occurred" at the time of the offences.

Baillie was also deemed to be at a low risk of re-offending in background reports to the court, she added, while he had also pleaded guilty at the earliest stage and expressed remorse for his actions.

Lady Cosgrove said she took account of Baillie's personal circumstances, and the fact that his plea had spared his victims having to appear in court as witnesses in a trial.

Had Baillie not pleaded guilty, he would have received 12 years, Lady Cosgrove added.

But the judge told Baillie she was also required to convey "society's strong disapproval" at the offences.

She told him: "That abuse constituted a gross breach of professional trust placed in you by your patients.

"It was committed for your own personal gratification, without any regard for the physical or emotional needs of your patients."