Gynaecologist to be tried in France for allegedly assaulting over 100 patients

Pontoise: A retired Vietnamese-born gynaecologist will go on trial in France accused of raping or sexually assaulting more than a hundred patients, a source close to the case said on Tuesday.

Phuoc-Vinh Tran, 74, has consistently denied the accusations against him throughout an investigation, which lasted for more than a decade.

The first complaint against the doctor, who practiced in the town of Domont located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Paris, was lodged in 2013.

Over the years, 133 women have come forward, denouncing the doctor's alleged crimes "in similar" terms, according to an indictment seen by AFP.

An investigating judge said in her order that the media coverage of the case encouraged other patients to speak out. The women were aged between 18 and 52 at the time of the events.

The judge emphasised the "serial nature" of the alleged acts, saying that the "sexual nature of the vaginal touching" was at odds "with a strictly medical act."

During appointments Tran would touch his patients' thighs, lower abdomen or clitoris or ask them about their "sexual pleasure," according to the investigating judge.

Lying on the examination table, the women would typically say nothing.

Tran told investigators that he had "practiced gynaecology gently" or according to "an Asian method."

The retired gynaecologist will be tried for allegedly assaulting 112 patients, after a number of cases have fallen past the statute of limitations.

Tran has claimed the case is a "plot" hatched against him following the media coverage of the affair.

In a separate case, retired surgeon Joel Le Scouarnec, 74, is now on trial in western France for allegedly assaulting or raping 299 patients, most of them minors.