A DENTIST has been acquitted of a charge of sexual assault after explaining to judges that he merely kissed an anxious female patient on the head to help calm her down after treatment.
The 45-year-old Bahraini was standing trial at the Lower Criminal Court and had earlier denied assaulting and abusing the woman.
The 53-year-old Bahraini initially said that he kissed her on the head three times when she went to his clinic in the Southern Governorate in May last year. During the case she later accused the dentist of kissing her on the cheek too.
The defendant said that he had simply tried to calm down the ‘elderly woman’ who he claimed looked ‘older than his mother’ when she ‘caused chaos’ at his clinic after he finished working on her teeth.
He said that she mistook his intentions and filed a police complaint against him.
Defence lawyer Dr Jamal Kamal successfully argued that there was not sufficient evidence to prove his client guilty, the root cause of the complaint was her being unhappy with the outcome of treatment she had received, and judges ruled in his client’s favour.
“The defendant has been acquitted of sexually assaulting the woman due to a lack of evidence,” read the court ruling. “He did not commit a crime and clearly explained to judges that he kissed the woman on the head, to calm her down when she was angry.
“Therefore, judges cannot punish him for a crime which he did not commit. His intentions were clear and therefore, he has been acquitted.”
Dr Kamal said that his client was just attempting to calm down a distressed patient who was ‘shouting’ and making other patients and children at the clinic ‘feel uncomfortable’, he told the GDN.
“My client had to act quickly and he went over and kissed her on the head in an attempt to calm her down,” he added. “His good intentions were misunderstood and the woman claimed that he was sexually assaulting her.
“She initially told prosecutors that he kissed her on the head before changing her statement in court alleging that he had also kissed her on the cheek. Her statements were contradictory. It appears she just filed a complaint against him because she was unhappy with his service.”
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